We interrupt our Christmas in July/August paper piecing project to present a palette-cleansing scrappy, double Irish chain, low-volume quilt finish.

Cindy and I were estate sale shopping last year (or the year before — is your concept of time messed up too????) and I stumbled on an old quilt in need of some love. The quilt was in pretty rough shape, but it just called to me. I bought it for the tag price of $5 because I loved the uniform bold blue squares and the clever quilting. I mention the quilting because what looks like many small white pieces, is, in fact, large muslin pieces quilted to mimic the size of the blue squares. Clever, right?

I knew I wanted to replicate the pattern, but I couldn’t muster up enough dark blues to make it work. So I decided to go with a scrappy, low volume approach. I went through my pre-cut stash of 2″ squares and pulled enough to build the quilt.

When I had a few finished blocks, I started to doubt my scrappy color approach — it just didn’t feel vibrant enough in proximity to the original. But y’all encouraged me to keep going, so I did.

When the top was finished, I was still on the fence but I went to The Backyard Quilter, a new-to-me quilt shop nearby, to look for a unifying backing fabric. They had some wonderful wide bolts to choose from and I fell in love with a beautiful teal fabric with a distinctly modern pattern. (Truth be told, sister Sue helped me pick it out — she has an amazing eye for color. She saved me from buying some subdued green swatch of blah.)

With backing in hand, I let the fabulous Ms. G do her quilting thing. I used the same teal fabric for the binding, and — oh my — that teal color made the whole project just pop!

This may be one of my all-time favorite finishes. Maybe instead of giving it away, I will keep it for myself….?