10/01/2026
Today’s quilt is a Jen design called Traveler’s Wife. It started to shape my fabric choices in a fresh way.
I didn’t think much about the big picture. Instead, I’ve decided to make the fabrics in each block look totally different from each other.
In other words, I wanted each fabric to contrast in a distinct way from whatever it touched.
This led to some interesting combinations, and it made every single block really nice to look at.
Sometimes the contrast was low and sometimes it was high, but I kept working to make sure there was plenty of it.
I went more scrappy with blocks like this instead of making all 16 half-square triangles from the same two fabrics. Win!!
Even very simple blocks can be super interesting when the fabrics play nicely off of each other.
I actually don’t think too much about color. Instead, I think about contrast.
I think 90% of the success of your quilt depends on the contrast. Maybe 10% depends on the colors.
In a few places like this, I used a cute motif printed on the fabric instead of piecing it.
I love the way this quilt turned out and it’s one of the happiest things I’ve ever made.
If you love patchwork, you will enjoy piecing this quilt. If you have an older version of the pattern, make sure you check Jen‘s website for the updates. There were some errors in the original pattern, but they have since been corrected, I believe.
I’d love to bring my scrappy style to your quilt group anywhere in the world!
