Church Window quilt - using my Palette Picks FQ bundle!

Written by Brittany Lloyd

I'm back to share another quilt that I made using my Palette Picks bundle! This is the third quilt that I made with the bundle, you can read about the previous quilts here.

It's been a while since I've made a Church Window quilt! The pattern is a little over 3 years old and it's been such a fun quilt to revisit. I love how bold these pieces are, and really it's such a great way to use a lot of color, or feature large cuts of your favorite prints! You can use fat quarters, fat eighths, quarter yards or yardage for this quilt and there are 3 different sizes to choose from. For this particular project, I created the Throw size option, and while the pattern calls for 18 fat quarters at minimum, I ended up using all 24 fabrics in my FQ bundle. I used Kona Gotham Grey for the sashing and binding. I used Kona Violet as the backing.

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DIFFICULTY LEVEL

I've had some questions about the difficulty level of this pattern. Let me preface by saying this pattern is very unique in the construction method. While there are no y-seams and the sewing is simple, you do need to be confident in your seam allowance consistency and accuracy. There are also some bias edges, so you'll want to be careful with those as well. All in all, the pattern isn't "difficult", but just know that it's a little more involved than your average straight line quilt patterns. It's labeled as intermediate, so as long as you're feeling adventurous and/or you have a few quilts under your belt, you'll be okay!

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PLANNING

In my head, I envisioned doing a random layout with these fabrics, but once I mocked it up on the computer, I just wasn't loving it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it felt a little bit disorganized in a way. I stalled out for a few days and thought that maybe I shouldn't make this pattern with my bundle. But then I got the idea to create an ombre layout. I had already created an ombre Celtic Crossing and Deco quilt, so I didn't want it to be overdone. But once I saw the mock-up, I couldn't NOT make this quilt. I was in love!

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I will say, every time I make this pattern, I can feel my skills improving. It can take a little bit of time for you to find your groove with the sewing, but once you have a plan of where you want all of your fabrics to go within the quilt, you can chain piece and save a little bit of time.

If you want a printable PDF of the color placement within the quilt, you can download it here.

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QUILT TOP

This cutting for this quilt is actually really straight forward....especially for fat quarters. You'll first cut strips, then turn those strips into trapezoids, according to the cutting diagrams within the pattern. You do not need any templates, but you could certainly create some if you think that'd be helpful. At minimum, having a ruler with a 45 degree line really helps!

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This was the moment when I fell in love with this quilt! I remember sewing this on a cool February morning and the sun was just beaming through the windows of my sewing room. I was giddy with excitement to see this quilt top finished!

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QUILTING

Ashley of Henhouse Quilting quilted all 5 of my Palette Picks quilts! She suggested this pantograph, called Chevron Tumblers - Grande by Patricia E. Ritter & Marybeth O'Halloran and I love how it adds some "sparkle" texture. I really think this pantograph would look wonderful on a variety of quilt designs! It's stunning!