sea crystal + plaid

Without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce my latest creation to my quilty friends!

I call it "sea crystal & plaid," a two-sided quilt.  It measures 58" square.



The tartan side started out as a b&w sketch composed on an airline tray table during a flight to San Francisco last fall.  Inspiration for this particular plaid came from one of my husband's many (...many) plaid shirts.  I had originally envisioned using just three colors (light, medium and dark), but I liked the idea of toying with a number of hues so I ordered a little bit of everything and ended up using about a dozen different gradients of greenish-blues from that order and my stash.  (More on that here.)

Then it came time to decide what to do on the other side.  Lately, I've been content to piece a series of "paper hats" separating two panels of fabric (a print and a solid, comme ça).  But then I got to thinking... this is for the Emerald Challenge, so why not test out a round cut version of my paper-pieced birthstone?  I thought about making rounded emerald "top hats" but decided to go with the full 16" gems, bezel set in a pearly cream on a backdrop of half ivory, half kraft paper bag.  

Edited to add:  the round cut birthstone block pattern is now available for immediate download for $5 on etsy and craftsy.

I straight-line quilted using the plaid side as a guide, and bound the quilt in Simply Color Ombre in aqua (though it's really more sea green).  I have to say, I think I like this two-fer, I like it a lot ;)

Entering this in the quilts category of a²(w)'s Pantone Challenge, and linking up with finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts.  Thanks to both amazing women for hosting!

Edited to add:  For challenge purposes, in addition to vary degrees of light --> dark emerald tones, I chose off-whites (pearl + ivory + cream) for my neutral, and kraft brown for my secondary color.

And if you like this cool green/blue color palette, check out this top!