Sidelights

I have loved the Sidelights pattern for a long time, but it wasn't until recently that I dove in to make one of my own. Shopping with a friend, I found this gorgeous tree fabric and knew that Sidelights was exactly the pattern I wanted to use.

I painstakingly measured and cut my fabric to create the effect of the center panel continuing into the outer border. With all of my attention to this detail, wouldn't you know I still came up about 4" shy! Determined, I had a Tim Gunn Make-It-Work moment and scraps actually completed my border to my satisfaction.

I was so inspired by the quilt top, I really wanted to set it off with detailed quilting. In each square I quilted a leaf and then stippled around it.

My goal was to create a wood grain look with my quilting in the center tree panel. I've never used this technique before. I like how it turned out, but certainly learned from the process and will try it again in the future!

Once I got to quilting the outer border - a meander with leaves, my tension started to give me issues. Overall, I made the quilting work, but I had to fight my sewing machine on this one. The tension on my machine just did not agree with me at all during the process. There were times either the machine (or me) needed a time out! I'm glad I pushed on though, because I just love this one! Ha - I think I say that about all my quilts, but it's true!

Sidelights is a pattern by Kari Nichols of Mountainpeek Creations. Have you made your own version? I recommend giving it a try! Have a very quilty day!

Katie