I tried something new: I made a quilt from a kit!
In general, I don’t consider kits very “me.” I enjoy the process of developing a palette and pulling fabric too much to allow a quilt shop to do those steps for me. When I won a Taffy quilt kit in Pure Solids through one of my guild’s monthly raffles, though, it was time to challenge my thinking.
And I was pleasantly surprised. This kit was just what I needed for my May quilt retreat. My in-process projects were not easily picked up and schlepped to Maine for a weekend, so I cut out and organized all the Taffy pieces in advance of the event. After the three days of the retreat, the top was done, as were a few other items from my quilty to-do list.
There’s another selling point for working from a kit on this project. The large throw-size Taffy quilt requires 30 different fabrics in addition to the background. It would have been hard to find this particular spectrum of colors in any one quilt shop, and it would have been nearly impossible to buy the necessary yardage online without ending up with a lot of extra fabric. With the kit, however, I had just enough fabric.
I’m really pleased with how this quilt turned out. The panto—sized to my liking for a less crinkly washed quilt—is subtle and doesn’t detract from the bold design of the quilt top. The binding is a woven fabric that matches one of the mauves in the piecing—it adds texture and interest next to all of those Pure Solids. And the backing, although simple and designed to use up stash, is one of my all-time favorites.
The only decision I would make differently in the future is the batting. The Pure Solids have a fine hand—they’re beautiful, but they’re not a beefy Bella or Kona solid. I think Warm and White would have made that background in Pure Solid Snow shine more brightly than the Hobbs 80/20 does.
I should note that I encountered some issues with the pattern. I found the 6.5"x 8.5" professionally printed booklet that came with the kit difficult to navigate. If you’re considering making your own Taffy quilt, I’d purchase the PDF; perhaps it’s laid out differently.
Also, the plus blocks should be trimmed to 11.5 inches (not 11 inches, as the pattern states). My blocks came out closer to 11.75 inches, so I adjusted all the sashing measurements to accommodate that. Instead of following the pattern’s instructions for the borders, I found it easier to figure out how I wanted the border blocks to line up with the focal blocks and figured out the math on my own.
Despite those points, Taffy is a beautiful design. If you’re an experienced pattern reader and comfortable tweaking things a bit, you’ll be fine.
What have you been working on? Link up your latest finish in this week’s linky!
Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday ...
Follow Me On ...
The pageant rules are simple:
- Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
- Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
- Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.
