I had planned on my Happy Bubbles quilt to be the first one finished for the New Year since I always like to begin with a colorful quilt, but Love 2024 took precedent. After Love 2024 was first finished, Happy Bubbles was ready for machine quilting since I had pin basted it before we left for the GP House. I know it’s way too early to say this, but Happy Bubbles is my favorite finish so far.
Last year, when I participated in Kelly Young, My Quilt Infatuation’s book launch of her Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs, I have been wanting to make her Bubble Bath quilt which was one of the 18 bonus quilt patterns. Besides being a fun pattern, I had purchased in. November, 2022, Carrie Bloomston Happy fabric collection of 24 pieces which was perfect to use for Happy Bubbles. I bet you can guess how I came up with the quilt name which I, of course, hummed “Tiny Bubbles” during the merry making. BTW, I’ve made several quilts with my stash of Carrie Bloomston fabrics but this is the first time I’ve made a quilt exclusively with just one collection.
I didn’t have enough of one light print to use for the background/sashing so I used the two above on the right. The grid print was used for the connecting corners and the scribble print was used for the sashing. The focus print on the left was used for all of the large bubbles.
There are three bubble sizes and I separated the fabrics i.e., prints were for the medium bubbles and the grid and colorwash colors were for the small bubbles.
Once the bubbles and sashings were laid out and segments sewn, assembling the quilt top was easy as the diagrams and instructions to do this was clear and understandable. What I like about Kelly’s patterns is that her patterns look complicated but really are simple. I will confess, that after all the bubble blocks were made, I did not want to sew another connecting square for awhile.
Once the top was sewn, I thought using two different backgrounds didn’t seem to blend as well I would have liked, so I added a 2.5” border of the grid print, which I think ties the backgrounds together better.
Of course, I had to make a pieced backing since I had leftover blocks. Luckily, the bottom half of the backing was already sewn for another project but ended up not being used and has been sitting in the backing vault.
I machine quilted with soft, meandering horizontal lines spaced 1” apart with silver Aurifil thread. Although I really didn’t want to use the main focus print for the binding, it was the right choice. Happy Bubbles measures 52” x 72”. The rainbow-loving, darling Granddaughter will be receiving this quilt as well as another one to be made with the leftovers. I have to confess that although I did say in a previous post that I didn’t want any fabric for Christmas, guess what, I did purchase, through the generosity of a gift card from Demando, Carrie Bloomston latest collection “Found” which is her first batik collection and would also look great with this pattern.
Kelly’s first book Stash Statement was released in 2018 and the quilt I wanted to make back then from this book was the Murrina quilt which reminds me of the Bubble Bath pattern. Kelly has announced that this book (originally published by Martingale and no longer in business, the rights have now been purchased by Fox Chapel/Landauer who published Kelly’s last two books Scrappy Improv Quilting and Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs) will be re-released in April with a new cover and in addition to the twelve patterns, there will be three new ones. Not an affiliate link, but I’ve already preordered a copy.
We’ve had real, real cold and snowy Winter weather, typical of January this week and there was no way I could ask the Master Quilt Holder if we could take a glamour photo outside. Also, I really didn’t want to go outside either. I think this inside pic looks nice. There’s going to be a warm up in a few days which will be much appreciated although I will admit cold weather always makes great sewing conditions. I do have a few more finishes before January ends.
Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT
