Square Dance Quilt

This beautiful quilt got completed just this week! It has been a WIP – Work in Progress – since 2018! This is another pattern from Melissa Corry (you can get it on Etsy – not affiliated) from Happy Quilting Melissa.

Luckily for me, this was an easy pattern to pick up again. I love the patterns that Melissa puts together, but sometimes they are pretty intricate! When they are more detailed it takes a LOT of brain power to remember how to piece it. So when I pulled out this UFO (unfinished object) to sew up, I was pleased to see how fast it came together!

This pattern was taught in a class at the Utah Quilt Guild Quilt Fest in September 2018. I always love taking classes from Melissa whenever I can. She is such a happy, bubbly, competent teacher! She has tons of great insight for newbies like me, and is very encouraging to sewists on all levels!

I was hoping to take this class with my mom or sisters, cause who doesn’t like sewing with their gals?! But the timing for this class didn’t work with anyone else’s schedule. However, when I showed up to class, my Aunt Cindy showed up too!!

We soon found out she was in the wrong class at the wrong time, so she had a few hours to kill and chose to stay with me. She was immensely helpful as my ironing elf. ? And she didn’t seem to mind! We had a great time chatting as I sewed.

So when I started sewing this again, I was able to pick up right where I left off! Without aunt Cindy of course. It was actually easy enough to piece together that I was able to sew up two different quilt tops at the same time!

I also took a leaf from Melissa’s “book” – I sew up as many pieces as I can and stack them up for later. Then I press them all at the same time. It doesn’t always work if I have a lot of small pieces to be sewn together into the same block. But it works great when I have enough to keep me busy!

I chose this pattern because it looked simple enough for when I was still a “beginner” quilter. It’s all squares! I’m also a sucker for anything white and navy blue. I get all the ??? whenever I see those two colors together!

I asked my mom to come do a quilt photo shoot with me. She is always up for my shenanigans! We took an orange 5 gallon bucket and the kiddos and went on a short trek. These pictures turned out perfect! Except for when we were fighting the wind… ?

And also when my kids wanted to be in the picture. ?

When I finally coerced them into moving over five feet, Mother Teresa was laughing so hard she couldn’t hold still long enough to let me take a picture!

But we were able to manage!

And the overcast day made for perfect photos too!

The pinks and greens remind me of watermelon – which makes me think of summer. So this quilt is ready just in time for summer picnics! If we’re done with self isolation by then… ? Happy Quilting everyone!