Arabian Night Quilt

So...probably two years ago, I won a bundle in a Fat Quarter Shop contest and received 9 yards of Cotton and Steel fabric. Yes, seriously. It was awesome! I was super excited about it and started thinking about patterns, and couldn't ever decide. And then Alison Glass's Handcrafted line took the internet by storm and I HAD to have some. I ordered a bunch of half yard cuts from Fabric.com before they changed their pricing model on quilting cotton, and when I received them, I realized how perfectly they went with the Cotton and Steel. And then I added in a bunch more fabric and ended up with a bundle and fell in love. And around the same time, I realized the perfect pattern would be the Arabian Night quilt from Angela Pingel's A Quilter's Mixology. I love her method for sewing curves, but cutting the fabric to sew those curves...not so much. So this project had a slow start.

And I was okay with that. I treated it like a back burner project and got it finished a lot quicker than I expected to, which is always a bonus! I started it last August, so it took me just about a year. I opted to use Kona Putty as the background instead of white because the AG Handcrafted really needed a non-white background in my opinion. The color isn't my favorite neutral, but I think it works really well with the fabrics.

I struggled with the borders and backing more than I usually do, and then again with the binding. With the fun prints of Handcrafted and Cotton and Steel, I didn't want to do something too crazy that would draw attention away from them (and my hard work at curved piecing) but I thought a solid border would be too plain.

I ended up taking the blocks to a local shop that carries more modern stuff, including Alison Glass, and while I was pretty sure I wanted Cotton and Steel, I ended up using a different Handcrafted print and I love it. I think it ties in the diverse colors really well without detracting from the design. I went with a simple Kona pink backing, and I bound it with some of the remainder of one of those Cotton and Steel prints.

I'm really happy with it! My husband thinks it's too busy, but I'm not sure I agree. I love the colors and the curves, and I'm pretty excited to have it finally finished!

Arabian Nights
Completed July 2016
long arm quilted by Abby Latimer