QM Scrap Squad: Nicole’s “Seaside” Majestic Garden

The Scrap Squad is a select group of eight QM readers. They take one pattern from each regular issue and make scrappy versions to inspire others.

The featured Scrap Squad quilt in Quiltmaker’s March/April ’13 issue is Majestic Garden, below.

It was designed and sewn by Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts in Rockford, Illinois. It was quilted by Sue Glorch. The fabrics are Monique’s own Royal Gardens for Maywood Studio.

Today’s quilt was conceived and made by Nicole Brouillette from Cottonwood, California. You may want to check out Nicole’s blog—right now she has some great ideas up for simple machine quilting! You’ll hear from her in her own words below.

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Nicole Brouillette from Cottonwood, California

I am so excited to be a part of this year’s Scrap Squad!

I was a little nervous to see the first quilt design. Sometimes I see a quilt and think, “I want that one, exactly how it is!!” But I’ve recently discovered how wonderful batiks are and I wanted to do some greens, blues and purples. I ran to my stash and pulled out these…

Hmm, I could go with purple and red…or blue and green. I wanted the criss-cross to be a different color so that it would really stand out. But how do I choose? I’ve heard that if you take a photo of your proposed colors and look at it on the camera or computer, you can see things a lot better.

I always thought this was a waste of time…but Quiltmaker wants us to take a lot of photos anyway…so here I go! I noticed that the purple and red didn’t go as well with my lights. I ended up choosing the blue and green, with the purple to be used as my accent color.

Yay! A plan! When I was picking background fabrics I wanted to make sure there weren’t any that were too dark. I chose 10 green, teal and blue darks and six different light fabrics.

Since I am a mother, a small business owner, and a quilter I have to make the most of my quilting time. Chain piecing is a great way for me to get more done in a short amount of time.

My husband saw how I would chain piece hundreds of patches and then sit with a pair of scissors and cut them all apart…so he made me an amazing tool!

It’s just a little wooden stand that has a notch cut into it where a blade sits, waiting to cut thread! It saves me so much time!!

I went from a pile like this…to nicely stacked blocks waiting for pressing in just a few minutes.

I also really enjoy watching Friends in the background with a few chocolate kisses waiting around for snacking. What is your favorite thing to watch or listen to while you are quilting?

Once I laid out all of my blocks, I was very surprised to see the pattern emerging. I thought for sure that the stars would be prominent…but I hardly saw them at all! All I could see was the square in a square pattern.

I thought about something else, too. Would it be easier to build the square in a square blocks than the sawtooth blocks—and you’d still get the same effect?

I assembled all of the blocks and added the purple border to finish off the lattice. I put my teal border up against the purple and really liked it. Again, I took a photo and thought that it was missing something. I shared the photo with the Scrap Squad and they suggested the small white border.

These ladies are geniuses! I auditioned it, took a photo, voilá! I loved it!! The great part about this quilt is that everything for the top, except for the small white border, came from my stash. I love stash busting!!

Off to quilting! I wanted to use an all-over pattern that was somewhat tropical to go with the theme of the batiks. I found my “clematis” pattern and knew it would work wonderfully.

Choosing a thread color can be difficult. I like to pull out a few different colors and lay them across the quilt top to see how they play with the colors of the top. Blue! Perfect.

And the finished product!!

Nicole's version of Majestic Garden is finished!

Nicole’s quilt makes me ponder booking a flight to someplace tropical. Don’t you just feel the sea and sky? This busy gal has done a top-notch job of Majestic Garden—her first Scrap Squad assignment! We’re nearing the end of this project but the next one is well underway in the sewing spaces of the Scrap Squad ladies. I can’t wait for you to see it!