Blue Ridge Spring quilt

We live just a few hours drive from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our family has hiked and camped in those lovely mountains many a time. When spring comes, the cool green pines are upstaged by native blooming dogwoods. Their white and pink blossoms are my favorite herald of the season!

This weekend I photographed my finished Indian Blanket quilt beside our old barn. The quilt’s clear, spring colors are grounded with rows of deep blue and earthy brown. Its color palette, combined with all those triangle peaks, brings to mind springtime in the mountains.

I designed this quilt pattern in 2014, as part of my Angled course. It’s so interesting to return to patterns years later and enjoy them with fresh eyes. The interplay of different sized triangles is energizing. It keeps the patchwork engaging, without being actually complicated. I hope this year’s Angled students are having as good a time with it as I did. By now many of them are onto one of the next quilts included in the course: Emerge or Starbright.

Have you been thinking about joining Angled? This week is your last chance to jump on in! This online course will be closed to new students as of February 28th. It’s self-paced and very beginner-friendly. Get all the details at this post.

My new version of this Angled pattern was made mostly with scraps with a few fat quarters thrown in for the large triangles. I didn’t hesitate to repeat fabrics and also used as many solid scraps as I had available. Plus, there’s so much repetition in the background fabric, a Cotton & Steel gingham in “linen” color. These choices make the quilt feel more restful than most scraps quilts. That makes it springier too!

With all those angular triangles on the front, I thought it would be fun to create a contrasting patchwork backing. I used up the rest of the fat quarters as parts of the quilt back, their rectangular shapes merging with random yardage in coordinating colors.

The whole work is framed in an aqua stripe binding. I love that particular shade!

Of course, I took advantage of my longarm machine to quilt this project artistically. I chose this angular design which mimics the equilateral triangles in the quilt. It feels very mountainous!

Blue Ridge Spring quilt is available for purchase in my Handmades shop. I hope it finds a place with someone who needs a little springtime beauty in their room. At 66 x 74 inches, it’s quite big for a throw, so this is a great choice for a large family or a tall couple - lots of room to snuggle!