Fraidy Cat for Color

Cheryl’s first Looking Glass quilt,
featuring Into the Woods, by Lella Boutique for Moda

You can’t say I’ve led you astray. I’ve been completely honest about this: I am afraid of color.

I can handle a little color. Four rooms in my house are painted a shade of yellow (five are a shade of beige). I wore a bold red shirt this week (under a navy hoodie). When it comes to my quilts, this tendency translates into slabs of white and negative space. My preferred fabric to achieve this result? Some Kona Snow, please.

When I offered to test the latest quilt pattern from Cheryl Brickey, of Meadow Mist Designs, I thought I was headed in the right direction. I bought a layer cake of Bonnie Christine’s Winged and yardage of Kona Snow. When it came time to join the pieced rows to the sashing, however, I got cold feet. I feared there was too much going on color-wise—light teal, medium teal, deep eggplant, salmon, pale coral, gray, aqua, yellow!—and sent out a call for feedback. (Many thanks to those of you who chimed in!)

In the end, I decided to split the five pieced rows between the quilt top and backing instead of following the pattern. The top features three rows broken up by chunks of Kona Snow.

The back highlights the remaining two rows sashed with Kona Sage.

The result is true to my gut feeling about the fabrics I was working with, but it doesn’t make me the most helpful pattern tester! My next step is to learn how to free-motion quilt so I can finish this project up in time for Christmas. (My procrastination efforts on this front have been most effective.)

If you would like to try your hand at Looking Glass, Cheryl is offering this pattern for $5.50, a special price good through December 6. It’s available on both Etsy and Craftsy. This pattern works well with layer cakes or charm squares. If you start today, it’s definitely doable by Christmas. : )

To celebrate the release of this pattern, Cheryl is giving away a PDF version of Looking Glass to one From Bolt to Beauty reader (my first giveaway!). To enter, include a comment on this post, sharing with us your top sewing or quilting priority at the moment. If you’re a no-reply blogger, please include your email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway will remain open through Monday, December 1. I’ll post the winner here on my blog and contact him or her via email on Tuesday, December 2.

Update: The giveaway is closed. The winner is mfhagopian. Congratulations!

I am just one stop on the Looking Glass blog hop. To see other testers’ quilts, and for additional chances to win the pattern for yourself, visit the other participants:

Friday, November 21: Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs
Saturday, November 22: Lin @ Lin’s Quilts
Sunday, November 23: Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts
Monday, November 24: Anna @ Fresh Dew Drops
Tuesday, November 25: Chelsea @ Patch the Giraffe
Wednesday, November 26: Shauna @ Shauna’s World
Friday, November 28: Shelley @ The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, and Let’s Bee Social ...