Marion’s Garden Test Quilt
Marion’s Garden Quilt by Jenn B Quilts
Towards the beginning of the year I signed up to test a quilt without seeing the design first. I am not going to lie. At first, this pattern kind of threw me through a loop. It was very different than what I was used to making, included a bunch of skinny strips AND wasn’t block based.
I overcame my first hurtle when I went to Quilting Mayhem in Snohomish, WA and picked these fabrics out:
Kona Cotton Lt. Parfait
Bali Batik Coral Gables
Bali Watercolors Batik Coral Gables
Bali Watercolors Batik Creamsicle
Cutting out the fabric pieces was much easier than I anticipated. As long as you go through the instructions systematically there is no reason to be scared. This pattern even comes with little markers to label the different sizes once they are cut to make finding the correct one easier when piecing everything together. I originally didn’t think I would need to use these but am really glad I printed them out anyways. Since so many of the pieces are of a similar size I definitely recommend using them or making sure to label the different stacks another way.
More than once I needed to rip the seams of pieces I had just sewn apart because they didn’t line up. Additionally, once I was done piecing the top together I realized that the whole quilt top was warped due to how I constructed the medallion (and how important having consistent seam allowances is).
Strip piecing the binding
I chose to quilt this guy with a simple grid. I have seen people call it a natural grid because one is not obsessive about it consisting of perfect and even squares throughout. My criticalness would call it an imperfect grid but natural grid sounds more intentional so we will stick with that.
I think it turned out pretty good! I hoped that the quilting would even-out the warp that I created when piecing and I think it accomplished just that.
Overall, this is a really great quilt to learn to piece really skinny strips of fabric or match seems so that pieces look like a continuous line. It is also great practice for maintaining a consistent seam allowance and piecing a medallion style quilt (vs a block based quilt).
