I realised it has been a while since I’ve posted anything, so I thought I’d show you something special. Here is the story of my Kite Flight Quilt. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen this quilt at the end of last year. It’s so beautiful it gives me a big smile every time I go past it on the bed.
The Kite Flight Quilt is a pattern from Better Off Thread. I found the pattern here on the Robert Kaufman site. I happened across this picture on Pinterest (in this colourway) one day and it was love at first sight. I’ve done a couple of quilts with a white background so I thought I’d go for something different and chose a light grey shot cotton. I couldn’t resist my usual ‘all the colours’ approach to the colour scheme, so pulled out my stash and had a play. In the end I’ve used 27 different KONA shades for the quilt and it’s very cheery. The backing is a patterned poplin that complements quite a few of the colours perfectly. You can spy it being used on the pillowcases in the top picture.
The pattern is quite ingenious. Each colour set is pieced in long strips then cut into triangles. This method made it easy for me to add a few colours as I went along. I made up all my colours then decided I wanted a couple more, so I added the grey and pale pink sets. I ended up making the quilt huge…it’s 80″ square. I quickly realised that the size was way beyond my quilting skills so I decided to outsource.
I had the quilt custom quilted by Carolyn from Free Bird Quilting Designs. She did an absolutely gorgeous job on it. I am thrilled to bits with the design she created. I think it perfectly offsets the blocks so that at the right angle the quilting really shines but it’s not all you see. Quite simply beaufitul. Thank you Carolyn!
To keep your eyes on the colours and the quilting, the quilt is bound with the same grey shot cotton as the background. I machine stitched it on since I didn’t fancy taking the next 4 months to hand stitch the binding.
The quilt was originally intended for our bed, but it doesn’t quite match our room so it now takes pride of place on our guest bed. I actually think that’s a better solution as I can see it through out the day. What do you do with your finished quilts?
Anna says
I caught a glimpse of this the other day and was going to say how amazing it looked but my train of thoughts quickly got cut off by one or many children and I never did. So anyway…. I absolutely love the colours, I wouldn’t have thought to use grey but it works so nicely. It’s been beautifully quilted too- great outsourcing! Quilts are very hit or miss with me but this one is definitely a hit 😀
abby says
Thanks! I find a lot of quilts don’t appeal to me either. I think it’s one of the reasons I took so long to start making them.
Anna says
P.S. One day I with make a quilt with those KONA colours – I absolutely love them! Might start with those placemats I was talking about years ago haha
abby says
Yes definitely! Placemats are a great first project and your plan (which I’ve totally forgetten now) sounded great.
FVITH says
Wow! This looks awesome. I love colours on grey. I think it was a great idea to outsource the quilting, too – it really adds to the beauty of the quilt.
abby says
Thank you. I knew I couldn’t do it justice on my own.
MaryBeth says
WOW WOW WOW!! I’m speechless (almost) and even my husband said, “Hey make that one!” He never says that. Ever.
Can you tell me how much fabric of each color you used approximately? Before I go shopping and buy 80 yards more than I ever need, I would love your input! I’m a very new quilter (made about 6 so far so calculating this would give me migraines). LOL
Thank you in advance ~ hopefully. 😀
abby says
Hi MaryBeth, from memory, I used 2 strips of each colour, so not much at all. The grey I can’t remember, I think I had 2yds and then had to buy another 2, but didn’t use it all.
MaryBeth says
Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply! Excited to start! My fabric comes tomorrow! Woohoo!!
Have a fab summer!
MB
Elizabeth says
Hey, I love this quilt and would like to make it for my son. How wide did you cut each of your strips? I would like mine bigger than the original pattern, but would rather have wide blocks than extra rows, if that makes sense.
Abby Rudakov says
I followed the pattern and used 2.5″ wide strips.
Jane Burt says
I would like to commission this quilt…I can’t sew. Quilting is beautiful!
Abby Rudakov says
Hi Jane, I would recommend finding a quilter local to your area and seeing if they can make it for you. Thanks for commenting!
Vicki says
Can you tell me what is on the back of this quilt ? Was it a plain pattern on the back or something coloured?
I’ve made the same, and cannot decide what to put on the reverse.
Abby says
The backing fabric is the same as the patterned pillow cases you can see. It had the similar shape and a lot of colours similar to the quilt front, so I couldn’t resist. It’s a cotton poplin, so probably not the best choice for a quilt back, but I couldn’t resist…it matched so well!
Heather says
I absolutely love these colors! I think you mentioned that you used fabric from your stash? I suppose you don’t know the names of the colors you used? I found the rainbow strips, but I think those colors are too bright.
abby says
Hi Heather, I can’t name them all, but I think I might have used Wasabi, Bright Peri, Pepper, Charcoal, Graphite, Punch, Coral, Capri, Teal Blue, buttercup, kiwi, canary, oasis, sour apple. These colours are from looking through my old Kona orders..so they might be for something else. But hopefully it’s a good starting point.
Heather says
That’s very helpful! Thanks so much!