Starting Summer Haze

In addition to starting my appliqué project, Secret Garden, I am starting a king sized quilt using the Summer Haze pattern. This will be a special request for my daughter Stephanie. It’s been about 5 years since I last made her a quilt, and my quilting skills have vastly improved, and she and her spouse have upgraded to a king size bed.

The Art Work: Stephanie has a 9-piece panel art work in her bedroom that she wants coordinated with the new quilt. Coordinating art and a quilt can be a bit tricky. You don’t want to set up a competition between the two; you want the eye to appreciate both. I knew I wanted a single fabric line with a broad range of colors in pastel and mid tones and I knew the pattern needed a southwest vibe and a unrestricted palette.

The Pattern: I found Summer Haze, by Suzy Quilts, looking through hundreds of patterns on Google. (Both the blessing and the curse of the Internet!)

Summer Haze is an HST pattern, using 4.5″ squares plus additional solid pieces to create a recurring diamond design. Making a king size with blocks this size is a challenge for me (I tend to use larger elements). The instructions call for piecing it in long horizontal strips, but I decided to piece and sew in sections to make the project more manageable and fit on my pattern wall for laying out the sections. I plan to add borders as I approach the size I need.

This pattern is quite flexible and could be made in any color range/ranges, using unrelated scraps, or in a limited palette. It’s also a great choice for a broad palette like I am using.

The fabric: I have been looking for the right fabric about a year, and found a line with the perfect palette on Hawthorne Supply Co (hawthornesupplyco.com). Hawthorne is an online shop that I discovered 4 or 5 years ago and they have a great selection, good pricing and responsive customer service. The line was so great, I ordered too many choices! The pattern, bought on line, uses 7 colors and I am using 10 and rotating the palette through.

The fabric name is Decostitch Elements, by designer AGF Studio and is a solid with a subtle southwestern style pattern printed upon it. The background is an off-white/cream color. The colors I selected are pulled from the art work, with some dark/brights added to help the pastels pop and add interest and depth to the quilt. My selections are pale peach to deep rose and coral, tan and brown, a lively pale green, two tones of gold and pale to deep aqua.

This first section sewn together is about 1/4 of the pattern. Phew! I am liking it a lot. Alternating with work on my appliqué project gives a nice contrast of activity for me.

Happy sewing!

Lennea