Introducing CITRUS CIRCLE!
The summer season may be coming to end, but some days I choose to live in a perpetual state of summer! Especially here in the PNW, we need a jolt of summer on those dreary days. So, without further ado, I’d like to officially introduce the most perfect summer quilt, Citrus Circle!
The INSPIRATION
Just like Dazy Daisy Drive, Citrus Circle was inspired by my newest fabric line, Summer Lovin’. I knew I wanted to design a quilt featuring citrus fruits, like the line, but I wanted the quilt to be more of a feature, unlike the fabric, where the fruits are a little surprise. I started doodling different layouts of circle shapes and fell in love with this ‘radiating from the center’ design.
The DESIGN
We also wanted to do large blocks so these babies finish at 10in a wedge, and make the “circle” with foundation paper-piecing. This way we don’t scare anyone off with curves, and welcome any FPP newbies with a quick, easy and large project!
The PATTERN INCLUDES
- Cutting instructions for a 60in x 60in quilt.
- Complete foundation paper-piecing Instructions.
- Full-size foundations on letter size paper ready to photocopy.
- A coloring page so you can explore as many different ideas as possible!
Behind the SCENES
I toted this quilt with me to Oahu this Spring to get some photos while I was there helping my partner recover from knee surgery. He helped me hold this quilt all over Honolulu while sporting his fresh-from-surgery brace. He even helped me prep for the photo shoot by ironing the Citrus Circle quilt… on the floor!
Choosing the FABRICS
We had so much fun pulling fabrics for this quilt because it proved to be a little difficult! We broke the quilt down into 5 fruits or color ways - grapefruit, orange, tangerine, lemon and lime. The challenge was finding a pith fabric light enough to contrast with the fruit and rind for each color way, but dark enough to contrast with the low volume backgrounds. We finally figured it out and managed to use some Summer Lovin’ prints in the quilt. Can you spot them?
The COVER QUILT
To make our Citrus Circle cover quilt we chose 3 fabrics in 5 color families to create the fruits. We paired these with a scrappy low volume background that creates such a fun texture to the background. We placed the “grapefruit” fabrics in the center and worked our way out in color order, ending with “lime” in the corners.
Kristy worked her longarm quilting magic and brought this quilt to life. She quilted a peacock feather fill inside the fruit, a swirl fill in the background and the pith and rind with stitch-in-the-ditch. I found the most perfect binding and backing fabrics for this quilt! This yellow and pink stripe for the binding just ties everything together so nicely and this fruit print for the background was a perfect color match!
The MINI QUILT
And you know us… We couldn’t just make one. So, we made a Mini Citrus Circle! And by mini, I mean we made 4 blocks. Each wedge is featuring a different color/fruit and we place it on a fun blue background. This size, 20in x 20in, would make the perfect summer pillow or table topper if mini quilts aren’t your thing!
If you make Citrus Circle, be sure to share photos on social media so we can see it! Post them to our Facebook Group or use our #sassafraslane hashtag on Instagram!
Stay tuned for more pattern introductions coming your way this week. Thanks for stopping by!
