My Catawampus Quilt hung in the Lucky Spool booth at Quilt Market this fall and has been shared a bit on Instagram as a result. But I haven’t shared it here yet! I like to have each quilt documented on my blog–it helps me when I forget things!

This quilt can be found in the shape section of my book, Improv Paper Piecing. The exercise that corresponds with this block is titled “Wonky” because I started my design process with an asymmetrical or wonky half hexagon.  I named the quilt Catawampus, a word meaning askew, awry, or cater-cornered.  To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t heard the word until I was writing the book. I was using the Thesaurus to look up some new terms for “askew” and “asymmetrical” because I was using them so heavily in my writing.  And that’s how I found Catawampus.  I had to use it. What a fun word!

I made this quilt in the fall and collected the items in the photo above from my late fall garden to serve as color inspiration. I enjoyed using the warm color tones and it was the first time that I ever used yellow for a quilt background.  It felt very brave at the time but I love it!  The quilt is just so warm and happy.  It was also a lot of fun to make.  I can imagine it as a great scrap buster too, can’t you?  I actually worked exclusively from my stash for this one and I bet you could too.

It’s quilted in straight lines, about a half inch apart. I quilted that way because the straight lines help to obliterate the construction seams which really make the half hexies look like they are tumbling down.

Here’s a great photo of the quilt that couldn’t have happened without helpers.  I really like taking quilt photos on windy days because I think that quilts in motion are so pretty. But, there are obvious challenges.  My mom was right outside the edge of this picture ready to catch the quilt in case it blew off. It was also pinned to the railing because I really didn’t want it to land in the water!

I am excited to announce a contest based on my book this Wednesday!  If you don’t have a copy yet, you might want to pick one up because the prize is really, really good!!