Carkai Plus Side

In the meantime, to make a The Plus Side quilt of your own, you can find the pattern here.

Today I have a fun quilt that I made using my The Plus Side quilt pattern (which can be purchased here).

The thing I like the most about this pattern is the diagonal line across the middle of the block. This lets me play with colour value, which is what I’ve done here:

How to form that radiating diamond shape

By alternating the direction of the diagonal line and the placement of dark and light fabrics, a radiating diamond pattern materialises.

The centre diamond appears by facing all the low volume halves in toward each other. The next round or frame around the centre is formed when all the dark sides of the blocks are oriented appropriately. The next round is low volume, the next dark and so on.

I think it adds some fun movement to the quilt. It also really suits the modern design and colours of Carolyn Friedlander’s Carkai fabric line.

The quilt finishes as 48″ x 60″. Of course, I could have continued on adding frames until it was whatever size I wanted.

Fortuitously (for me, maybe not for her) Fiona Bell lives just around the corner. I asked her to long-arm quilt this one for me. We both agreed that a quilting design with some curves in it would work nicely in contrast with all the angles in the quilt top. Curvy, flowery and feminine didn’t match but curvy mid-century mod style fit perfectly.

I used a scrappy binding in the greys with a single run of the lime green. Being the nerd that I am, I matched the direction of the binding joints to the direction of the diagonals it was attached to:

A small detail that was just for my own enjoyment (given no one else would notice unless told).

The backing was also Carolyn Friedlander – her wideback cross hatch in black. I love those widebacks so much!

The designs that didn’t make the cut

Would you like to see some outtakes? This quilt took a long time to come together in its final form.

Once I received my Carkai FQs and half yards I knew I wanted to make a The Plus Side quilt. I set to work making blocks, with a particular layout in mind. That layout didn’t appeal to me at all once I set it out (I didn’t even take a photo of it). So I set to work trying to find a layout that did.

(Excuse late night photo quality. I wasn’t planning to share these but thought it might be interesting for those who like to see the process behind a quilt.)

For some reason it took me ages to figure out the navy blue blocks didn’t belong. It’s so obvious now, when I look back on these photos.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Well, that and a little flower arranging:

This new pattern will be coming out very soon. My newsletter subscribers will receive a special offer when it’s released, so make sure you’re signed up!

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