Tessellation quilt: A finish!

Back in October, I revealed the Tessellation quilt I finished for RJR Fabrics' What Shade Are You? Blog Hop, and now I'm finally getting around to posting all of the details here.

I love working with solids, so I jumped at the chance to try out RJR’s Cotton Supreme Solids for the first time. I’m a big fan of Cotton + Steel fabrics (a division of RJR), so I expected the Cotton Supreme Solids to be the same great quality, and they did not disappoint. The colors are so vivid, the fabric has a beautiful hand, and they were truly a pleasure to work with.

In fact, the hardest part was deciding which colors to choose. When the Cotton Supreme Solids color card arrived, I couldn’t seem to narrow down the options. They were all too good! So I shifted to choosing my pattern, which turned out to be a no-brainer. I had wanted to make the Tessellation quilt (pattern by Nydia Kehnle and Alison Glass) since I first saw it, and I knew it would look so good made up in solids, so it seemed like the perfect choice. The pattern calls for 25 fabrics, so I started with the blues and teals (my favorites) and then expanded to the cool pinks and purples to round out my selection. I chose the following Cotton Supreme Solid colors for my quilt top: Fairy Princess, Candyland, Charlotte, Rio, Rhododendron, Pink Orchid, Bougainvillea, Hydrangea, Amethyst, Caviar, Hyacinth, Periwinkle, Cloud 9, Carolina, Lancaster Sky, Anemone, Electric Blue, Robins Egg, Riviera, Turks & Caicos, Horizon, Bora Bora, Schooner, Proud as a Peacock, and Celeste.

Additionally, I used Geo Drops in Teal (from Rashida Coleman Hale’s Raindrops collection for Cotton + Steel) for the backing. I love how the hexie drops mimic the triangular shapes on the front of the quilt.

The quilt is composed of five triangle designs, and it was so fun to start playing with the colors to see how different combinations would work in each piece. I spent many a night with rows of paper-pieced sections laid across my work table and floor, shuffling and rearranging.

When it came time to quilt it, I struggled with choosing just one thread color, so instead I chose 16! The obvious alternative, right? I quilted diagonal lines in a triangle shape roughly one inch apart, changing my thread color every three to four lines. There are 15 thread colors on the front, reflecting the range of blues, teals, purples, and pinks in the solid fabrics, and one color on the back, chosen to match the color of the hexies in the backing print. I wish I could capture the colors in the quilting better in the pictures. They really are so fun in person.

I’m so pleased with the final quilt in all of its saturated solid glory. The movement across the blocks makes me think of a sparkly geode or shattered glass, and it has such great visual interest, keeping your eye bouncing from one section to the next. This was definitely a perfect solids project, and it was a joy to get to work with these lovely fabrics.

If you're looking to branch out from the usual solid suspects (Kona, Moda Bella), I'd highly recommend giving RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids a try. They have a similar feel to Konas (a little heavier than Bellas), and the colors are bold and saturated.