Oh I’m so excited!  I actually finished a quilt top from my Sewtopia weekend (I’ve finished both projects from our classes but one at a time here…gotta spread the posts out!).  The first finish I want to share with you (and disclaimer, by “finish” I mean I pieced the top) is the fabulous curved design, Molehills by Latifah Saafir.  I love this pattern!

Eep!  Isn’t it fabulous?! I went all out on color and print on this one.  No neutrals, no solids, no nothing.  Just fun fabulous fabrics.  And all of the fabrics were hanging out in my stash, so I love the collected look it has with fabrics from years ago and new releases.  Those are my favorite types of quilts.  Plus, bonus!  I actually used fabrics from my stash.  Gasp!  I know!

Latifah’s original design called for all pieced arcs (and in fact you could have pieced each arc in sections first and then pieced them to the others in the same “hill”.)  There are so many options though and I followed the lead of my gal pal, Rossie, who was super smart about adding full fabric hills to both cut down on the amount of piecing needed, showing off great large scale prints in my stash, and highlighting the pieced arcs as something truly special.

Because, come on, sometimes you just have to use a big chunk of a glorious fabric to show it off and appreciate it.  I love that you can get a full view of the two “cat” prints here, and the large florals can finally be seen not just on a quilt back.

I also made my pieced hills slightly more subtle by piecing them from fabrics all from one colorway. With creative exceptions of course to mix things up. But I stuck with a coral, blue and yellow theme with dashes of a deep neutral here and there and I LOVE it.  (I may have mentioned that… lol…but I LOVE it)

I’ve completely lost track of how many different designers ended up in this quilt but it was someone around 14 at last count.  And I LOVE that I could do that.  I don’t always get a chance these days to truly mix and match between companies and designers, but for a quilt for ME it’s a no brainer.  I’m treating myself to a long arm quilter for this which is why I’m showing it not “finished” but I’ll be sure to inundate you all with more pictures when it is truly done.  Because remember: Quilts take time.  Sometimes we are under crazy schedules and it looks like they are produced over night…but that is not real life.  I finished this top quickly because I had a whole day to work on cutting out all the pieces and piecing the hills.  Then I was so excited about it that I brought it home and wanted to finish it! Excitement finished this, not necessity.

Oh and I do believe that Latifah officially has the pattern available for sale now!!  So you can all go and get it.  I PROMISE that is a doable quilt.  I was in a room with 80 people of all different levels of sewing experience and everyone was able to sew this.  These gentle curves are practically straight seams!  So go check out Latifah’s site and get the pattern! Oh and I just saw that she is running a quilt along.  Get the tips from the expert!