Colorful Quilt Top

Last year for my birthday, my mom gave me a gift card to my favorite quilt shop (QuiltWerks!), and I had the fun of picking some awesome fabric to play with. 

My quilt shop had these cute precuts (called "Prairie" from Riley Blake), and I decided to get a couple of packs of 5-inch squares.  

I've always loved the colors and prints that are usually seen in 30's reproduction fabrics. The combination of colors and prints is just so refreshing and fun! Fabrics from the 1930s is what I think of when I see these fabrics (even though I don't really know what does and doesn't constitute a "30's reproduction" fabric print).

I needed to find a pattern that would maximize my 5-inch squares ... This fabric is definitely too cute to waste! I was incredibly inspired by Amy Smart's Ganache Quilt. And, since it's made of triangles and squares, it was perfect for me: I could cut my quilt components with absolutely no waste! 

I took one stack of 5-inch charm squares and cut each piece in quarters -- so I had four small squares of each print. I took the other stack of 5-inch charm squares, and cut each piece in half diagonally -- so I had two triangles of each print. (I don't have the actual pattern, so I don't know how the inspiration quilt was made. But after looking at it, this is what I came up with.)

Since I loved the look of Amy's quilt, I wanted mine to look like hers ... mostly. The thing I wasn't sure about was the background. I'm always nervous about white backgrounds on quilts ... but I still wanted that light and fresh look. So I went with pale gray for the background color.

 

I love how the background seems light, but still practical! (This cat of ours has a radar-sense for fabric. Anytime quilt-block-layouts are happening, she appears out of nowhere to inspect.) 

This quilt top still needs a basic gray border, and I need to figure out what I'm doing for the back of the quilt. (Lately, I've gotten bored with plain backings on quilts, and I love the idea of reversible quilts that are kinda fancy on the front AND on the back. Because, who has time to make ALL the quilts? I sometimes need to combine two quilts into one! So, I'm still deciding what the back of this quilt will look like.) I took this quilt top for show and tell at my quilt guild, and my friend Cindy took this picture below (Thanks, Cindy!)