Exploding Heart Quilt in Parakeet

I just finished my SIXTH Exploding Heart quilt!

I absolutely love seeing the quilt in different fabrics, and this time, I made mine in Kaffe Fassett fabrics!

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Several months ago, I did a few a few dozen mockups of the Exploding Heart quilt (get the pattern HERE!) in new collections of Kaffe Fassett fabrics for Free Spirit fabrics. They chose five colorways to print in a brochure that their sales reps are currently using to show quilt shops the new fabrics!

This version uses the Prism collection with Jumble in Blue for the background.

Shown with the Emperor collection with Aboriginal Dot in Wisteria for the background.

This is the one I made! It uses the Parakeet collection and Jumble in Magenta for the background.

This version uses the Ocean colorway with Heliotrope for the background.

The final version uses the Equator collection and Jumble in Prune for the background.

Lucky for me, Free Spirit sent me enough fabric to make one of them!

I didn't know which fabric they were going to send ahead of time, so it was a fun surprise to open the package to find a fat quarter bundle of the Parakeet collection and yardage of Jumble in magenta for the background!

The fabrics are so bright and fun!

I love how each fabric is strong enough to stand alone, but all together, they create such a fun mix!

If you haven't ever used the Free Spirit sateen backing, RUN don't walk! You NEED it in your life! It has the softest hand! It's like silk!

I followed the pattern exactly, and used my AccuQuilt to cut all the pieces. (Yes, the pattern includes directions for making it with an AccuQuilt!)

My Oliso mini iron and wool pressing mat made quick work of pressing the blocks.

This quilt marks 1,296 quarter square triangles that I've made for Exploding Heart quilts!

I use a flannel backed table cloth and push pins on the wall of my dining room to layout the blocks before sewing them into a quilt top. Oh, and numbered pins too!

When taking the photo of the quilt top below, my husband noticed a 4' snake skin in the grass right where he was standing. We snapped the photo and got out of there quick!

Once the quilt top was done, I had to choose what color of Aurifil thread to use for quilting. My first thought was hot pink, my second choice was lime green, and third was orange. After laying them all out on the quilt top, I decided orange worked with all the prints the best - even though it was my least favorite of those three colors! This is #1154 Dusty Orange.

I layered the backing fabric, Hobbs wool batting, and the quilt top on my longarm (a 1989 Gammill that I've named Kramer. Yes, he has googly eyes.)

I free-hand quilted a small meander all over the quilt.

The texture of the quilt with the wool batting is amazing!

For binding, I tried a new-to-me gadget that worked much better than I expected! The Binding Eaze is silicone iron rest with "belt loops" on the sides. You just fold your binding in half, place it through the belt loops, place your iron on top, and pull! It folds the rest of the binding perfectly in half and presses it at the same time! It's so fast! Honestly, I thought it was going to be one of those "as seen on TV" things that didn't actually work, but it does! Totally worth it! (Get one here!)

Of course I sewed the binding on by machine! (Tutorial here!) The fabric is Paperweight in Lime.

I even remembered to sew one of my Ever Emblem labels on!

I LOVE how the quilt turned out!

Up close, you can see the details of each fabric, unique and bold.

The quilting blends so well into the fabrics that you don't even notice it!

The back perfectly complements the front! (And it feels amazing!)

This was the first one of the Exploding Heart quilts that I've made where the background is darker than the heart fabrics. 

It's stunning! And now I want to do it again!

You can see the previous versions of the quilt that I've made here, here, here, here, and here.

Have you made an Exploding Heart quilt? Get the pattern HERE!

I'm thinking about doing another quilt along for it this fall, so be sure to sign up for the notifications if you might want to join the fun!

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Exploding Heart - A Finished Quilt