30 and quilting Paintbox Quilt

Hey everyone :)  Sometimes in blogland you come accross somethings that just speak to you...as did this quilt!  I hadn't heard of the paintbox quilts (have you??) so I just spent the last 30 mintues looking through this flickr group!  Anyway, this brings me to Nicole from 30 and Quilting's Paintbox Quilt.  Really, I just adore it.  It is different and modern and fabulous!

I definitely tried to do something out of my comfort zone with this quilt...I used solids, didn't use white sashing, and I even backed it in blue...and normally I would have went for pink. The scariest part was quilting in a lighter thread color so I knew it would have to be spot on or you'd totally notice if I did a $h:tty job stippling.

go ahead just click on it enlarge it, you know you want to swoon over each block

I used 32 different solids for this quilt instead of the 40 Elizabeth wanted us to use because I didn't have enough different colors (especially purples and blues) or I just didn't like the color. So some colors have 3 blocks instead of 2. Almost all of the fabrics came from my scrap bin...and no, it's not any smaller. It is sashed in Kona Charcoal and stippled with a medium gray thread.

and the back...

Halfway through making 80 blocks, that when finished are 6x6, I was almost ready to give up! The pieces were so tiny and making so many blocks began to be tedious and repetitve...but I pushed on through and I'm so glad I did! The finished quilt is fabulous (especially in person) and I love being able to look at all of my beloved Flea Market Fancy scraps in almost all of the blocks! The feedback I've received on Flickr, my blog, and at the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild has been absolutely awesome! Thanks!

Check out her blog for fun projects...just look at her 2009 quilt finishes!  Thanks Nicole for allowing us to feature you.

Also don't forget to comment and become a follower for our pattern giveaway!  Details here.