 |
| Calypso Quilt |
Vibrant Geometry: Making the Calypso Prism Quilt Come to Life
Jean Ann Wright from Paintbrush Studio created the Calypso Quilt, which is a showstopper of both rich color movement and traditional block design, if you're looking for a showstopper that can accomplish both. This pattern features the brilliant contrast, lively prints and smart block layout to produce an eye-catching prism effect in a large bed-sized quilt designed to highlight the radiant Calypso Fabric collection by Ro Gregg.
It may be an exercise to dive into your stash or perhaps a practice of using a full curated collection, whichever you're searching for, this pattern delivers a great balance and exact piecing exercise.
Pattern at a Glance
- Finish Size: 86” x 110” (Generous Queen/Full coverage)
- Skill Level: Intermediate
- Block Layout: 18 Shoofly Blocks (12" x 12") & 17 Star Blocks (12" x 12")
- Key design features: Alternating traditional blocks, pieced inner borders and colorful citrus, turquoise and magenta accent strips.
What makes this design special is the way he/ she is able to convey the theme of the design.
What makes the design so strong is Jean Ann Wright's pairing of two classic quilt blocks: Shoofly and Star to form intriguing secondary patterns. The structure of the quilt imposes order and rhythm on the colorful designs.
1. Dynamic Block Pairings
The quilt center is constructed on a 7 row alternating grid. The eyes traverse a diagonal path, as the crisp Star units are paired with Shoofly blocks. The Shoofly blocks feature a gradient flow across the surface of the blocks, with a series of 18 different colored fat eighths, and a variety of yellow, light blue, pink and purple starburst backgrounds.
2. Precise Flying Geese & Star Points
Clean triangle-and-bar units are the foundation of the 17 Star blocks, which feature custom turquoise triangle-and-bar dragonfly focal points and crisp white starburst backgrounds. The high contrast of this combination makes the star points stand out nicely on the quilt top.
3. Applied quilting techniques.5. Basic appliqué and patchwork.
Instead of standard strip borders, Wright sews in custom pieced inner borders with angled rectangle units and additional star-point embellishments. The final top looks complete and meticulously framed with a thin 1.5" magenta circle stripe middle border framed by an outer citrus floral and dragonfly border of depth 8.5".
Fabric & Piecing Success Tips
- Label Your Cut Pieces by Block: The Shoofly blocks are available in a variety of prints, so label your cut pieces before putting your half-square triangles (HSTs) together.
- Press for Flat Seams: In the Star block and Shooffly block, the multiple points meet in these blocks, so press seams towards the darker fabrics so they do not pucker when you are quilting or towards the darker fabrics where bulk is likely to collect.
- Border Alignment: Take a measurement of your pieced center before putting on your inner pieced and outer printed borders so that your 86" x 110" quilt top remains square and flat.
Final Thought
The Calypso Prism Quilt is a full training session on how to use geometric block placement and show off beautiful, hand dyed style fabrics. The use of traditional piecing methods combined with contemporary saturated colors is all the while engaging in the assembly process, from the first CPT to the last binding stitch. When you're ready to work on a project that has a truly spectacular depth and continued beauty, then this pattern is a must be on the cutting table.
Full Pattern: Calypso Quilt Free PDF Pattern 🎁
