Mariposa Quilt

 I can't believe summer is just around the corner, which is always an exciting time for me because it means more sewing time, and hopefully more time to write as well!  I also want to spend some time better organizing my fabric stash this summer, and making some updates in my sewing room, but I'm trying to be realistic about how much I'll actually be able to accomplish in the one month that my kids will be in summer school. 

For this post, I'm talking about the details of one of my first quilt finishes for the year, the Mariposa Quilt.  This year, I'm participating in Southern Charm Quilts year of quilt alongs and making all five of the quilt's featured in Melanie Traylor's new book, A Life With Quilts.  I first discovered Melanie's quilt patterns on Instagram last summer, and the first quilt pattern of hers I made was the LaLa Fancy Quilt.  I fell in love with Melanie's overall style and aesthetic and knew I wanted to make more of her patterns.  So when she came out with a book last fall and announced she would be doing a year of quilt alongs, the decision to join in was an easy one! 

The first quilt along took place in January for the Mariposa Quilt.  Mariposa means "butterfly" in Spanish, which is obviously a fitting name for this quilt. 

I went back and forth about the colors I wanted to use for this quilt, but ultimately decided to go with warm tones...maybe because we were in the midst of a cold Missouri winter and I needed a reminder that warmer days were coming. I definitely notice that my moods and the weather reflect my color choices in my quilts sometimes. 

The fabric I used was mostly from Southern Charm Quilt's fabric line, Earthy Goodness, with the exception of the animal print, from Crystal Manning's Kasada line.  For the background, I used Art Gallery Pure Solids in Creme de la Creme, which I've never used as a background before, but I love it...it's such a pretty creamy off white color.  For the backing, I pieced together two Ruby Star prints, one a handkerchief panel, and the other a wideback Zinnia print from the Golden Hour line.  I don't often use more than one fabric for my backings, but I kind of like a scrappier back and feel like I should piece my backings more often. The light peach binding is the Sono print in Peach Cream from Ruby Star's First Light collection. 

Probably my favorite detail of this quilt is the label on the back and the big stitch binding.  Southern Charm Quilts makes custom quilt labels in her shop, and you can purchase one for each of the quilts featured in her book.  I love how she includes a picture of the block on each label...it just adds a little something extra special and personalized.  

I've been big stitch binding all of my quilts since last summer, and even though it takes me a bit longer to finish my quilts this way, I really enjoy sitting down with my quilts and hand stitching...it's a meditative process for me and honestly something I look forward to.  I used to hate binding and was never happy with the results when I finished my binding by machine, but the big stitch hand binding method made all the difference for me. 

I love it when I can incorporate a design element from the quilt top into the backing, and these little butterflies on the Ruby Star panel I used for the backing tied in perfectly with the butterfly blocks!  For the quilting, I used a simple serpentine stitch to create lots of texture and movement.  This is my go-to straight line quilting stitch when I want to add texture. 

This was a fun quilt to start the year with...it definitely helped get me through the winter blues.  I've been a bit behind on posting, and I'm already working on the third quilt in Melanie's book, which is a much different color palette than this one! I should hopefully be able to share more soon!