Cushion Cut Quilt

You know when you were a kid and you used to pretend to be a princess or a Queen? Wasn't it fun to imagine what your crown would be like? If I were a Queen and I had a crown I would want a cushion cut gem in every colour in rainbow order across the front. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a big cushion cut gem of each colour? Well, I obviously do not have that but I do have a quilt full of gorgeous fabric cushion cut gems in every colour. Here it is!

"Cushion Cut Quilt" pieced and quilted by Anita LaHay of Daydreams of Quilts. Pattern by Caroline Greco of Nightingale Quilts.

This is a very clever pattern that I have been testing for Caroline of Nightingale Quilts. Each block uses three different tones of one colour to achieve a 3D effect. Almost all of my cushion cut gems are sewn with Kona Cottons and my background is Kona White. I had some "Natural History" fabrics by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics left from my Yuma Quilt and they are perfect for these blocks so I put some of them in the quilt too. Maybe I will make another "Cushion Cut Quilt" out of all Natural History fabrics and it will be just rubies, sapphires and emeralds. (If I can even find more of these Natural History fabrics! They seem to be sold out everywhere I look.)

I made the throw size and it is five feet wide by seven feet long. My husband is standing on a milk crate behind this quilt and it's still lying on the grass at the bottom.

See what I mean about the "Natural History" fabrics? Look at that cushion cut gem smack in the middle of a cushion cut block. I love it! :)

Here's another one with the cushion cut gem near the top of the block.

I do love the Kona fabrics so much! As usual when I am taking quilt photos lately it was stormy and windy here. The quilt was flapping like a flag in the wind. It does make for good lighting though to get the colour to really pop.

This is a great pattern and it's not hard to make these blocks. I would say this pattern would be at a "confident beginner" level. I made three of each of the colours and was able to do so with a fat eighth of each of the three tones. I really enjoyed choosing the colours for each gem.

I was on a tight time line as it took me a while to make up my mind what fabrics I was going to order. I wound up using a "Brights" and a "Classic" fat quarter bundle from Mad About Patchwork. I didn't use all of the fabrics in the bundles but I needed a good variation of tones to choose from. Originally I was just going to use the brights but then I broke open the classics too which were on hand for another project. (I still have enough for that project though.) The awesome thing about Kona fabrics is they don't go out of print!

To save time and thread I chain pieced at every step of the way until I got to the final blocks and was ready to put the top together. The blocks themselves form the sashing which is wonderful for someone like me who really dislikes sashing. I used 8 strips from a jelly roll of Kona brights to make my rainbow binding. I really love how this quilt turned out!

Caroline has offered to give a free copy of her PDF pattern to one lucky reader of my blog. To enter please leave me a comment telling me how you think you would make your "Cushion Cut Quilt". Would you make all your gems the same? Would you use all the colours? Or maybe just pick three? Would it be a Christmas quilt? Or a Halloween quilt? Leave a comment and a winner will be chosen by Random Number Generator Sunday evening. This giveaway is open to everyone. **Update** Giveaway closed. The winner was comment #7 Cathy! Congratulations Cathy! :)

The "Cushion Cut Quilt" pattern will be available in Nightingale Quilt's Craftsy shop. Click the follow button over there to ensure you don't miss it! I think she might have another cool 3D design in the works too.

Please visit some of the other testers to see their versions of the quilt. You can also see even more in the hashtag #cushioncutquilt on Instagram.

Skinny Malinky Quilts

Frankenstein's Fabrics

Linking up with "Finish It Up Friday". I actually had this finished last Friday but waited to post today for Caroline's Pattern release schedule.