As I mentioned last week, my stash of blue and green fabrics is simply overflowing. So right after Christmas, I set my mind to making a blue and green quilt.

As is usually my first step, I turned to my shelf of quilt books for inspiration. This time I found it in a copy of Kaffe Fassett’s Museum Quilts. And I actually followed the pattern, Square Clamshell Quilt, pretty much exactly.

The blocks themselves are large at 18 inches. And while they look really scrappy, there is a rhyme and reason to the way they’re put together.

If you draw a line diagonally through the block, each side is a mirror image. The setting blocks are either half of the full block or a quarter of the full block.

The blocks were fun and easy to make, although figuring out the half and quarter variations kind of hurt my brain. I arranged the blocks with the lighter ones at the top and the darker ones at the bottom; none are super light or super dark, but it just seemed like a good way to go. Next up I needed to figure out the sashing. My initial plan was to use the blue and green strips that came in the jelly roll of solids that I got for Christmas.

The more I looked at that arrangement, though, the more it just felt too busy. I finally decided I needed to go with one solid fabric for the sashing. Luckily, I had a lot of different color options to play with.

The final two choices were pretty much polar opposites. Either I’d use a light olive green and take the subtle route or I’d go with the bright blue. I decided that the bright blue made the blocks pop more. And as luck would have it, Sewn Studio had that exact blue in stock! I ended up using one the of the jelly roll fabrics for the cornerstones.

With the blocks and partial blocks put together, I needed to trim the ends to square up the quilt.

And with that, the main part of the top is done!

I do think I might add a border or two to finish it off. Or maybe not—I kind of like the way it looks in the photo above. I plan on using the bright blue as either the next border or the binding. I think that will help complete the blue areas.

That makes two tops ready to quilt in one month! (Plus, of course, the other quilt tops I have sitting around.) So this one I’m planning to send out to a longarmer. I’m hoping she’ll be able to keep the quilt design confined in each block, maybe with some design that helps the viewer see that the blocks are mirror images. We’ll see. I’m just really happy with this quilt and really happy to have room to buy more blue and green fabrics.