Shades of Blue

The first black and white (with some color) quilt I made was Crossroads, back when I had first started. I've been wanting to make another black/white/color quilt for some time now, but I was looking for the right pattern. That seemed to come up one day when I was looking at quilt photos from Cheri House's City Quilts.

So I purchased a copy and waited for it to arrive with excitement. When it did, I flipped through the book immediately to find the pattern, but couldn't find it. I checked the table of contents in confusion, and then I realized it ... this quilt, called City News, was not in the book as a pattern. I had bought a book for a pattern only for that pattern to not be in the book!

But I still wanted to make this quilt, so I couldn't let a thing like a missing pattern (but seriously, false advertisement, C & T?) stop me ... so I drafted the pattern myself.

I used a combination of black/white prints from a Kim Schaefer bundle, and Kona cotton in various shades of blue. I love the way the beautiful blues look with the black/white. The black and white fabrics create octagon shapes in repeat, and I'm really enjoying the visual effect! I played with secondary patterns by creating diamond shapes in the space between the octagons and filling it with a contrasting design to the swirly background.

I did some dot-to-dot designs in the black/white areas since that's my preferred design for prints. I usually draw the shape on a whiteboard, pick out some dots, connect them, and it almost always looks fine as long as it's symmetrical.

The original quilt by Cheri House was done in black / white / reds, which feels energetic. My version, however, feels tranquil due to all the blues. I love how changing up the color changes the feel completely!

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Linking up with: Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Cooking Up Quilts, Sew Can She, Powered by Quilting, and The Devoted Quilter.