Simple for Summer

With summer around the corner and beautiful sunny days beckoning, the idea of an easy quilt is oh-so-appealing! A little sewing, a lot of gratification, and you've got your quilt made with extra time to sit on the porch with an ice-cold glass of lemonade. 

Here are two great summer patterns for you, both featured in the Summer 2015 issue of Easy Quilts magazine. We talked to Joanie Holton about both quilts.

First up, "Central Park," designed by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton, featuring Michele D'Amore's Our Town collection for Contempo Studio. Guess what? Contrary to what you might think at first glance, this quilt involves no curved piecing! Just fuse and go. (We promised you quick and easy for summer!) The bold tulips make the perfect background for diagonal "stripes" of orange peel shapes. 

"Central Park" designed by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton;
made by Joanie Holton; machine quilted by Naomi Polzin;
featured in Easy Quilts Summer 2015

Tell us about the Our Town fabrics.

Michele does a really fun use of color—they’re tend to be unique. There’s pink, but it’s a salmon pink. There’s orange, but not bright orange. It’s a sweet coloration but not so syrupy sweet. I think it’s a fun way to show you can do pink with that black in there, which gives it an edge. 

Michele also uses larger shapes, which can be challenging but make you stretch and think outside the box, like using the tulip print as the background in the blocks. 

What’s one thing you love about this quilt?

It goes together really quickly—just orange peel blocks and plain squares. And because of the shape of the orange block, they just zip right together. The only hint we’d give to anyone planning to make it—make you sure you pay attention when you lay out the quilt--the tulips are directional. 

You took a traditional block design and changed it up.

I love the orange peel blocks. They’re fun. This is not a traditional way to see them—the strips of orange peel makes the diagonal row. 

Click here to see the entire Our Town collection.
Click here to find the digital pattern.
Click here to find the kit.
Click here to find Easy Quilts.

Next up, go sassy with the "Tropical Garden" quilt, also designed by Melanie and Joanie, using the Tango collection by Greta Lynn for Kanvas. Big, bright prints make this quilt a crowd pleaser, and the construction is simple--large squares joined by sashing. 

"Tropical Garden" designed by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton;
made by Joanie Holton; machine quilted by Sue Krause;
featured in Easy Quilts Summer 2015

Who do you picture using this quilt?

It’s such a fun quilt—perfect for that tween age. Cute and playful but not so babyish.

Tell us about your fabric choices.

It’s fun to be able to alternate small and large focal prints—people get stuck, thinking they need to use just a large focal print—playing with alternating two gives the quilt a different look. 

And what about the sashing?

I think sashing is a fun way to use stripes. It creates a really great multicolor look without piecing. For the sashing squares—sometimes you want that square to pop, but because there was so much color already going on in this quilt, we didn’t want it to distract from the center squares, so we chose sashing square fabrics that blended with the sashing.

Click here to see the entire Tango collection.
Click here to find the digital pattern.
Click here to find the kit.
Click here to find Easy Quilts.