Introducing Ink & Indigo! (Friday Foto Fun #68)

Ink & Indigo holds a very special place in my heart and was released earlier this week in the Love, Patchwork & Quilting Issue 70!  The copies will be on sale in the US in a few weeks, but you can purchase a digital copy now!

Ink & Indigo in Issue 70 of Love, Patchwork & Quilting (photo courtesy of LP&Q)

So why is this quilt so special?

This quilt was my very first design... ever.  It was on page 1 of my very first sketchbook back in early 2016 which I first started quilting.  There have been multiple attempts to create this quilt over the last several years.  I even brought the design to Quilt Con 2017 to Elizabeth Hartman's You Do The Math class to try to figure it out.  I thought I had figured it out and started making a prototype.  This was originally slated to be my Pattern 103 (spoiler alert: It's not Pattern 103).

I made a single block and then duplicated the block in PhotoGrid to see what it would look like on a repeat.  I decided that each of the strips would end up being 1" finished getting as many of the repeats of the block in a quilt as possible.  I made a block, it looks great, now to actually make the quilt, right?  WRONG!

Here's where I got to by the end of March 2017 (above) and by May of 2017 (below).

This quilt was AWFUL to make. So many tiny pieces and so many seams!  I couldn't do it.  This quilt was the reason for that long delay between my 102 Broken Lattice pattern and when my next pattern came out, 103 Circular Illusions.  I actually still have a box of all the strips that I had cut to make this quilt in a box somewhere... I want to set it on fire because that's how hard this quilt was to make.

Flash forward the beginning of 2018 and my mind was always wandering off to how to actually construct this quilt without wanting to flip a table.  I distinctly remember being at the Montreal airport coming back home from my day job when I thought to rotate the block 90 degrees to make the assembly easier.  If you look closely to the test blocks above and the final version of Ink & Indigo, you'll notice that the rotation did the trick!  I also increased the width of the strips to 2" finished which made the quilt infinitely easier to create!

I ended up submitting the quilt to LP&Q in February 2018 while I was attending Quilt Con 2018 and had it accepted for publication! The quilt uses Kona solids in Deep Blue, Charcoal, and White. Issue 70 of Love, Patchwork & Quilting has instructions to make this quilt and a 20" pillow.  Rhonda Walker of Olie & Evie quilted my quilt with a diagonal plaid motif edge to edge to follow the background squares!

I really hope you enjoy this quilt as I think it's my proudest finish as a quilter.

There are so many tips and tricks I have for this quilt since there are no extra seams... NONE, everything is strip pieced or diagonally pieced.  I may do a sew along if there is enough interest later this year.

Would you be interested in a sew along for this quilt?

If you are interested in making your own version of Ink & Indigo, you can find the pattern in Issue 70 of Love, Patchwork & Quilting, which released earlier this week in the UK and will be available in the US in another 4-6 weeks. The magazine is also available for purchase as a digital download.

Don't forget the Island Batik Getaway Blog Hop is still going on!  Check out the schedule at the bottom of my post here.

Your turn! What did you accomplish this week?  A block? A quilt top?  Link up below!

A few reminders:

• When you link up a post, please try to support the others folks in the linky party!  Let's spread the motivation and support to help everyone make progress in their own time.
• Your post does not need to be something quilty you accomplished, but definitely encouraged.  Sometimes life just gets in the way, but feel free to share something you are proud of this week.
• In your blog post, please include a link back to my blog or grab the Friday Foto Fun Button and put it on your sidebar.  This way others who visit your blog can also join in on the fun!