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I have a new pattern available!! That might not seem like a big deal. I'm a pattern designer, after all. But for whatever reason, this particular pattern just couldn't seem to make it's way to the finish line. The Sandalwood pattern is finally in my shop and I can finally share this sample quilt that has been finished for almost two and a half years.
Yep, you read that right. Two and a half years. It's actually been almost three years since I pieced the top. I remember exactly when I started it because my 16 year old senior dog was having dental work done that day. It was the Monday after the New Years holiday in 2021.
Millie's teeth had been bothering her and causing her pain, but she also had heart disease and anesthesia was a big risk. We had decided to have the dental work done anyway to remove some teeth because she was becoming so miserable that it didn't seem right to let her suffer. At least she had a chance of surviving the procedure. I took the day off work because I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate while I waiting to find out if she was still alive. So I grabbed my honey buns and just started strip piecing since that didn't require much concentration.
Millie made it through, thankfully, and lived another six months and I had this quilt top finished about three weeks later. I sent it off to a longarm quilter in March and I don't remember when I put the binding on, but the outdoor photos on my phone (like the photo above) were taken in early July 2021.
Fast forward to now and I am so relieved to have this quilt and pattern out in the world!
Sandalwood is what I would call an advanced beginner pattern. I say that because while the piecing is all simple and straight-forward, an accurate seam allowance is a must! There are also some bias on the edges to be aware of, although I do give you my suggestion on how to help with that in the pattern.
So if you've made a few quilts and feel good about being able to get an accurate quarter-inch seam allowance (and you are okay tackling an on-point quilt that is sewn in diagonal rows), you should be able to make this quilt. There are no fancy techniques involved.
Sandalwood can be made with honey buns (precut rolls of 1.5" strips), fat quarters, fat eighths, or quarter yards. This would also be a good pattern to use up narrow scraps. Just make sure you have the same total number of strips as called for in the pattern!
I used Sherri and Chelsi's Balboa collection for this quilt. Of course, that's now about three years old so you might not have much luck finding it. Sherri and Chelsi always seem to have the prettiest fabric collections. I love the color palette of Balboa. These aren't colors I necessarily would have thought to put together, but it works!
The only thing I didn't like about Balboa is that there were only two light aqua prints and they were two of my favorites, but I made up for it by using one of those prints for the back of the quilt. Besides, I do love a large floral for a backing!
For the binding, I used a small scale floral taupe print from the collection.
I sent this quilt out to a longarm quilter. This was before my longarm stopped working September of 2021, so I could have quilted it myself. However, I was getting so behind on getting quilt tops quilted that I had started sending out a few just to try to get caught up. I sent this quilt to Nicole at Kwilt It! and she quilted an edge-to-edge pantograph called Loop to Loop Rows.
You can kind of make out the quilting on the photos below or focus on the backing fabric that is showing in the photo above.
Another fun aspect of this pattern is that there are bonus instructions included with the pattern. You will end up with some decent-sized leftovers from your strip sets and I didn't want to waste them. So I came up with a way to make a second quilt!
This bonus quilt ends up almost as big as the main quilt! It finishes at 60"x70" (compared to the main quilt at about 64"x76"). You'll need additional fabric for some background that matches the main quilt, plus fabric for the areas between the pieced blocks, which I'm calling the accent, and border fabric (plus backing and binding, of course).
I went with the other light aqua print for the border since I again felt like it needed more of that color! Then I used a pretty low volume print for the accent. The backing is the same large floral but with a cream background instead. Finally, for the binding I chose the really pretty multi-colored stripe from the Balboa collection.
There are multiple options for how to handle the accent, borders, and even block layout for the bonus quilt. It's all explained in the pattern, along with a few layout ideas! In the end, you could have two throw size quilts from just two honey buns or a few fat quarters (along with various yardage of course!)
I hope you will check out the Sandalwood pattern in my shop. If you make this quilt and share on social media, but sure to tag me and use the hashtag #sandalwood quilt so I can see it! And stay tuned to see my second sample quilt, plus the bonus quilt that looks quite a bit different than this one!
Until next time,
Amanda
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