I recently finished testing the Diagonal Dazzle Quilt by Danielle of Mix Measure Make. I'm not going to lie - this quilt took me a long time to make, but it was so worth it. Just look at all those tiny squares! They are 1" finished and there are hundreds of them to make. I also decided to make a scrappy version of the quilt. The quilt requires three colors plus a background fabric.
I was given a large amount of fabric scraps from a member of our local sewing group on Facebook. She had an etsy shop at one time and cut her items in batches from the fabric folded in half which left a long strip down the middle of the yardage that was about 10" wide. One fabric that was in large abundance was a white fabric with a black space print. I decided to use it as my background. I probably have enough of this fabric for 2 more quilts.
I then needed to pick my colors. This took me a bit and after playing with fabrics for a day I decided on a royal blue, a turquoise/mint green, and purple.
I was particular with which fabrics I selected for my blue and turquoise/mint colors. For blue, I tried to stay as close as possible as I could to a royal blue and included blues with green in the print. For the Turquoise/mint colors I kept to a few fabrics which some all came from the same collection. I did allow them to range from a pale mint with a white print to a dark turquoise. I find that adding in different tones in the same color family adds depth and interest.
When it came to the color purple, I had to dig to find enough fabric scraps that were even close to being purple-ish. I added in some more pinkish purples and some prints that were equal parts blue and purple. I also had a print that was purple based, but had bits of red and brown in the print.
I absolutely love how my Diagonal Dazzle Quilt turned out! As my scraps were cut into the quilt pieces, I was extremely worried that my quilt was going to turn out hideous. As I slowly pieced together the units, I really loved how the colors played together and embraced the variety of the purples. All my fears evaporated when I took my completed top outside to get a photo and loved how bright and playful it turned out.
The Diagonal Dazzle Quilt comes with two different sets of instructions. There's one set that I followed that uses less fabric. It uses zero waste techniques such as 4 at a time flying geese and making 2 half square triangles at a time. This method does require trimming pieces and blocks as you go. The second method creates two quilts! It uses more fabric and uses zero waste techniques, but you make flying geese and half square triangle individually, but sew a second line of stitches to make a bonus half square triangle. After you make the Diagonal Dazzle Quilt like mine above, you can them make a second smaller quilt with the bonus blocks.
This is Danielle's first quilt pattern and I was so impressed with the instructions and all the sewing tips and tricks in the pattern. It's on sale for a limited time for the release.
