It’s always a happy day when I get to pick up a quilt from my longarm quilter. Karlee of SewInspired2Day does such nice work. Because this quilt features a very traditional block (known as Economy and Square-in-a-Square), I chose a very traditional quilt motif: Baptist Fan. I love the look of the curved quilting lines on the straight edges of the diamonds and squares.

Here’s a look at the entire quilt after trimming:

The trimmed quilt measures 62½” x 71½”. I cut the border strips extra wide (6½”), giving me the option of trimming them after quilting if I wanted them narrower but I find I like them just the way they are.

Although the prints from the “Cheddar and Indigo” line by Penny Rose Studio for Riley Blake Designs are traditional, I did sneak in a couple of modern prints, most notably the cheddar in this block:

It’s called Barcelona City Map from the “Barcelona” line by Zen Chic by Moda. I used some of it in 2020 while making Scattered Stars, my first indigo and cheddar quilt, and liked it so much I replaced it in my stash — and bought the same print in three other colors!

The indigo print in this block was a vintage find, produced back in the day when selvages carried little or no information at all about the fabric designer or manufacturer:

The selvage on this fabric reads “© Springs Ind., Inc.” Out of curiosity, I googled that just now and much to my surprise a website popped up with a brief but fascinating history of Springs Industries, a cotton textile company founded in 1887 by Samuel Elliott White of Fort Mill, South Carolina. You can read about it here. The website is run by the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina.

Here’s a look at the back of the quilt . . .

. . . and a detail shot:

I’m going to bind my quilt in an indigo blender by Maywood that reads as a solid. It’s a fabric I use so often I buy it by the bolt.

The only decision remaining is what to name this quilt. The quilt is based on the free pattern Floating Squares by Carried Away Quilting. The only thing I have come up with so far is “Diamonds and Squares Afloat” which is descriptive but not very clever. If any of you have suggestions, I’m all ears.

The final 10 Floating Squares blocks have been made and added to the previous 20 to complete my 5 x 6 layout. It took several days of wandering in and out of the Annex (the room across the hall from my sewing room) and rearranging squares on my design wall to get to this point:

While I’m very happy with the balance of blocks in terms of color and scale, the feeling remains that the blocks need to be separated to tone down the cheddar factor.

If you’ve been following my progress on this from the beginning, you’ll recall that my options to achieve this were to 1) turn the blocks on point and alternate with plain cream blocks, 2) separate the blocks with sashing strips, or 3) add another round of triangles to each block using indigo or cream fabrics but not the cheddar.

I was predisposed to setting the blocks on point and alternating them with plain blocks but surprised myself by deciding on a simple 1″ lattice between blocks and rows. To test it before cutting and sewing strips I separated the blocks on my design wall:

This is so much more pleasing to my eye!

Here are the first three rows with sashing strips added between the blocks:

Totally on the right track. But it turns out I wasn’t quite finished tinkering with the design. What would it look like, I wondered, if I added cornerstones between the blocks? And what if they were cheddar? They would be tiny — only 1″ finished — so it might work.

I cut some 1″ test squares out of scraps and stuck them up on the design wall:

Oh my! I love this look. Isn’t it funny? I changed the layout of the quilt to soften the effect of the strong cheddar and then turned right around and added cheddar back into the mix.

Here are my two latest Floating Squares blocks:

Aren’t they pretty? You’ll notice the one on the right has a fussycut center from the same print as an earlier block but in a different colorway. I wish I had more of the one dark and one light outer triangle fabric but I only had enough scraps to finish those two blocks.

When I first started making these Economy blocks using leftover indigo and cheddar fabrics from a previous quilt, I quickly realized that the cheddar fabrics were dominating the blocks. Remember my first six? Here they are again:

You’ll recall I thought of turning the blocks on point and alternating plain blocks of a creamy white background to lower the cheddar factor . . .

. . . but I wanted to make a few more blocks before coming to any firm conclusions about what direction to head.

Well, now there are 14 blocks:

Let me say first that I love these blocks individually. But collectively? They still feel a bit overpowering. And I’ve figured out why. Yes, the cheddar is dominant but there’s something else:  my palette of indigo, cheddar, and cream represents dark, medium, and light values. Nothing in between! No medium lights, no medium darks. There is nothing in the overall palette to soften the sharp contrast between dark, medium, and light.

Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing — but it is something I hadn’t considered when I chose the fabrics. If you take a look at the fabrics Taunya of Carried Away Quilting used on her pattern cover quilt . . .

. . . you’ll notice that the overall effect of the quilt is soft because of the variation of values used across the quilt. I see several medium lights and medium darks in addition to the usual dark, medium, and light values.

I will not be able to achieve that softness with my fabrics so I need to consider my options. I’ve already considered putting my blocks on point and alternating with plain blocks of creamy white. If you go back to the first photo, you’ll notice the block on the left includes a creamy tone-on-tone paisley print in the first set of triangles. I believe there’s enough of that fabric from my stash to make alternating blocks as well as setting triangles.

Another possibility is to separate the blocks with sashing strips of the same creamy white. Not a bad idea. Certainly worthy of consideration.

Yet a third is to add one more row of triangles to my floating squares, using indigo or cream where the cheddar triangles would normally go. That would relegate the cheddar to the center squares and first set of triangles. Also not a bad idea because it would tone down the cheddar factor considerably. But it would also create a larger block, one that finishes at around 13″ rather than 9″. Of course putting the 9″ squares on point would do the very same thing.

I’m going to make a few more blocks (because it’s so much fun!) and continue to ponder my options. Lest you think I’m disappointed at the possibility of changing course with the quilt design, let me assure you I am not. Even experienced quilters can be caught off guard. This has been a valuable lesson for me in considering fabric values — and sometimes these kinds of lessons result in quilts that surpass original expectations.

Regardless of the outcome, I am going to love this quilt.

Earlier this month Taunja of CarriedAwayQuilting released a free pattern called Floating Squares:

As you can see, I downloaded it.

It’s a fresh and clever take on the traditional Economy block, also known as Square-in-a-Square. Each block is made up of a center square surrounded by triangles. By making the triangles that surround the center square a bit larger, the square “floats” in the block because its points don’t touch the next seam.

As Taunja notes in her pattern, this means you don’t have to match points when the squares are sewn together, and you also avoid the possibility of cutting off points. I don’t have a problem with either of those things because I pin and sew carefully. Still, I was drawn to the design because of its ease of construction and slightly airy look.

Her pattern calls for 21 fat quarters. I don’t have many fat quarters in my stash (because I seem incapable of buying pieces of fabric less than a yard in length). As I was pondering what fabrics I might use for some test blocks, my eye fell on one of my very favorite quilts, Scattered Stars, made in 2020 from a collection of fabrics from the “Cheddar and Indigo” line by Penny Rose Studio for Riley Blake Fabrics:

After finishing Scattered Stars, it was plain to see that there was enough fabric left over to make one or even two more quilts.

Although not fully committed to making another cheddar and indigo quilt, I decided to make a few blocks anyway. Three fat quarters yields six 9½” blocks. I started with these three fabrics . . .

. . . and here are the results:

Oh my! That’s a lot of cheddar. Too much cheddar?

Let’s see what putting them on point looks like:

Imagine that with a creamy white fabric in the alternating blocks. Oh yeah!

Before making any final decisions about settings, I’m going to make another set of six blocks using three different fabrics. The blocks go together easily, and Taunya’s pattern is beautifully written and illlustrated.

There is one change I will make in constructing the next six blocks, though. To maximize the use of fat quarters, Taunja’s instructions call for four triangles to be cut from one square, meaning twice on the diagonal. This results in the outer edges of each triangle being on the bias. (Because of this, I starched each block after the second round of triangles was added before squaring it up to 9½”.) Since I’m cutting my fabrics from yardage, I’ll use squares that have been cut only once on the diagonal, which will make the outer edges of each triangle on the straight of grain.

To see more photos of the beautiful quilt on Taunja’s pattern cover, read her blog post here. The post includes a link to download the free pattern.