Indigo Radial Mini Quilt

Audrey of Cotton and Bourbon is releasing her first pattern this Friday, February 8, and I was happy to be able to join her group of pattern testers last month! I first saw Audrey’s work when her Offset quilt was juried into QuiltCon last year. That quilt was the beginning of a really fantastic series that now includes Indigo Radial and the soon-to-be-released pattern.

For my tester, I chose a monochromatic palette using a bundle of PURE solids by Art Gallery Fabrics that I picked up at Quilt Market last fall. Audrey’s pattern includes generous fabric requirements to make sure you have enough (which is absolutely the right way to write a pattern). However, if you are VERY careful with the cutting, you can squeeze out the needed top and bottom background pieces from two fat quarters, and that’s what I was able to do here.

The striped arc is paper pieced, and since it’s a simple series of straight lines it’s a great way to get familiar with the technique if you haven’t paper pieced before. The curved piecing is more challenging, and definitely earns the pattern its “intermediate” skill level ranking. The curves themselves are gentle, but the thin lines and alignment of arcs between each quarter require a consistent and precise seam allowance.

I have not done a lot of curved piecing, and I had one or two trouble spots during assembly. But overall, this pattern was absolutely doable with patience and care. Audrey also has several really great tutorials on her website to help with both the paper piecing and curved piecing aspects of this mini quilt. I recommend checking those out!

I took my quilting cues from what Audrey and some other testers had already done. I started by quilting straight horizontal lines, spaced ~1/2″ apart using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. I then added accent quilting using teal thread that matched the teal in the striped arc. I buried quite a few threads for the accent quilting, but it was worth it!

The quilt is finished with a facing.

I was snapping quilt photos in the backyard when my girls got home from school, and they were happy to act as quilt holders for a final shot.

The stats:

• Quilt measures 24″ square.
• Pattern is Indigo Radial by Audrey Esarey.
• Fabrics are 5 PURE solids by Art Gallery Fabrics from this bundle. I also used White Moda Bella Solid from my stash.
• Backing is a teal solid from my stash.
• Faced (instead of binding) using a white solid.
• Machine quilted with a walking foot using Aurifil 50 wt (#2600 Dove) and a Craftsy polyester thread (Teal) that happened to match perfectly.