It feels like it's been months since I've done any sewing, but I'm here to show you my second finish for 2026! (The first one was made with fabrics that I can't share yet, so you'll have to wait until May to see that one!)
Jennifer from The Inquiring Quilter has another signature collection from Island Batik, and she asked if I wanted to play with some of the fabrics! How could I say no to that?!?
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Jennifer sent me a fat eighth bundle of the collection.
I sorted the fabrics into the two obvious groups: blues and oranges.
That meant these four got left out since they just didn't fit as well with the others. But that left me with eight blues and eight oranges.
At the same time I was sorting these fabrics, FedEx delivered a new (to me) AccuQuilt die! It makes 4" x 8" half-rectangle triangles and is part of this larger set. I immediately wanted to try out my new die!
The blue and orange fabrics reminded me of lightning in a storm, which led me to this quilt, and I knew this was the perfect plan!
I wish I had a picture of cutting out the triangles on my AccuQuilt, but my 10-year-old did that while I was working! He cut out three HRT sets from each fabric (so six triangles).
I put all the triangles up on my design wall to visualize the quilt, then started sewing the half-rectangle triangles (HRTs).
This is one of those shapes that is SO much easier to use the AccuQuilt than to make them from scratch. The AccuQuilt version is just cut and sew. The traditional method is cut, sew, cut, then trim. So many more steps!
I had all the HRTs sewn up super quick, then pressed the seams to the darker fabric.
To get the zig zag design (or lightning bolts), the even-numbered columns have to be sewn off-set to the odd-numbered columns. My HRT blocks were 8 1/2" long, and I decided to mark a spot 5 1/2" down. This would be where I would line up the adjacent column. (I used my favorite Sewline Air Erasable pen.)
I used the 5 1/2" mark to line up the first seam of the adjacent column, then just sewed the columns together in pairs.
Lightning bolts!
When sewing these column-pairs together, I peeked underneath to try to align the seams as best as possible. I'll admit though, this was more of a guess and less of an exact science.
Once all the columns were sewn together, then I just trimmed off the excess from the top and bottom!
I layered the top with a orange-ish batik from my stash for the back and a scrap of Hobbs bleached 80/20 batting. I pin basted the quilt so I could do walking foot quilting and chose this Aurifil 50wt thread in Peach #2215 for the quilting.
I used my walking foot to quilt on the orange fabric about 1/4" in from the edge of each lightning bolt. Then I had an argument with myself. Part of me said this was enough quilting, and the other part of me wanted to add several more lines. You can see which one won.
I took all the scraps and cut 2 1/4" wide strips to make a scrappy binding, then sewed that on by machine. (Tutorial here.)
I added my label into the binding during the victory lap!
And voila!
The finished quilt is about 32" x 36" - a great lap quilt size!
As soon as I stood back to look at it, I thought of Taylor Swift's song "Opalite" that has the lyrics: "It's alright, you were dancing through the lightning strikes, sleepless in the onyx night, but now the sky is opalite."
I love how much movement the quilt has! Those lightning bolts just keep your eye moving from fabric to fabric!
Here's a peek at the orange fabric on the back.
I used to be so hesitant to use scrappy binding, but now I really like it! Plus it's a great use of the scraps!
Now, do I love the quilting decision?? I'm still thinking about adding more quilting lines!
I made this quilt with the Starry Seas fabric line, and there are several other bloggers who have made things with the same fabric too! Hop to their blogs to see what they came up with!
Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts <---That's me!
Lisa at Lisa's Quilting Passion (Jan 17)
Gail at Quilting Gail (Jan 18)
Sandra at Textile Time Travels (Jan 19)
Leah at Quilted Delights (Jan 20)
Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter (Jan 21)
If only I could take a photo of the quilt with a real lightning strike behind it!
I am also hosting TGIFF this week! What have you finished lately? Link up your finish so we can high five you!
I like how you sorted the fabrics, Laura. That makes the design very clear.
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