Quilted Sunset on Appalachian Trail
I love this quilt and so happy I was able to make it with local designer, April Rhodes‘ collection, Wanderer, for Art Gallery Fabrics. It is a beautiful follow-up to her Arizona collection. If you don’t have any in your stash already, you NEED to get some!
I am fortunate to live in Columbus, OH where April resides. When she was having her launch for Wanderer, I knew I HAD to go….and I was not disappointed. This collection is just absolutely gorgeous! I love the deep oranges and mustards with the complementary blues and black. The photographic patterns are so unique too. It’s a beautiful personal view into her world.
When I was there, I picked up a full fat quarter bundle of the entire collection…20 pieces altogether plus some extra yardage because it was all just so pretty!
As I stared at the FQ bundle in my sewing dungeon, I knew I wanted to make a quilt with every single fabric. A basic square quilt came to mind…but with a twist. I like square quilts to show off larger fabric patterns but I didn’t want it to be boring since every quilter makes one. With the warm and cool color ways for Wanderer, they reminded me of a sunset. So I came up with this pattern with an offset “sun” moving into darkness.
Fully pieced and completed quilt top
Each square measure 4.5″ (unfinished) and the quilt is 11 x 16 blocks. Finished, the quilt is approximately 44″ x 64″. I used two yards for backing and a little over 1/3 yard for binding.
The quilting is straight-line diagonal starting in the “sun” and echoes out to the edges. It is supposed to mimic the rays coming off and I’m very happy with how it turned out! You can see the quilting best in the top picture. I used Aurifil 2021 for all the piecing and quilting. It was perfect to blend through all the colors in this collection and is one I happen to use a lot.
Close-up of backing and binding with Aurifil
For the binding, I machine attached it to the front and hand-stitched it to the back. This method takes much longer, but I love the clean look of no visible stitches. Plus, I’m too OCD and cannot get the machine binding to look as good on the back as it does on the front if sewn through…one day I’ll perfect it. Aurifil 2225 was the perfect match to my binding and accompanied me on my trip 😉
The finished quilt photos were all taken on our family vacation in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains. I brought the quilt along to hand sew in the car, but didn’t anticipate the gorgeous photo opps in store for me. But I am SO happy I finished it in time for our drive deep into the national park. If you ever get a chance to go, please do…and bring your quilts! It was just breathtaking!
Please share any quilts you make with this pattern! I’d love to see them 🙂
Happy Stitching,
Cristy
