I take my sketchbook with me almost everywhere.
It comes in very handy when I get stuck waiting somewhere.
Somewhere like a hospital waiting room, for example.
It was on one such occasion that I ended up staring at the carpeting in said waiting room until the weave pattern became so apparent that I sketched it out in my book.
There it remained for awhile, until my local guild asked me if I would design a quilt for them and present it as a mystery project at our annual fall retreat. Of course I would!
I flipped through my sketchbook looking for ideas, and came across the carpet-weave sketch. I excerpted a section of it, enlarged it a bit, colored it in, and came up with my newest quilt pattern design, Charleston Pavement:
This quilt measures 66″ x 70″, and is constructed using only squares and rectangles, so it’s much easier than it looks to put this quilt together.
Starting with 2 1/2″ strips, you can cut from your stash, or use a favorite jelly roll along with some coordinating background fabric, and recreate this quilt in your own preferred colorway.
My subjects at the Mystery Retreat did all their cutting ahead of time, and I then presented the quilt to them in 4 separate steps on the day of our retreat. There were 23 participants, and they had no idea what the finished quilt would look like when they started, yet they were the most wonderful group of pattern testers!
Here are some pictures of the work they did that day. This gives you a chance to see the quilt done up in some different colorways.
Here’s Andrea with her purple and white version:
Di with a blue and white version:
Diane, using some Kansas Troubles fabrics:
Gyla, who used a black background with her brights:
This one is Kathy’s:
Kay’s — batiks?!?! Kay never uses batiks! But she did this time, and it’s lovely!
Linda’s, with an orange background — what a great and different idea!
Liz. I spy Tula Pink!
This one is Marilyn’s:
Marsha’s, in nice soft, fall-like colors:
Peggy’s, very striking in black and white:
And Rose Marie’s — more fall colors but with a darker background:
Here’s a group shot of most of them at the end of the day:
And, pictures from our guild meeting following the retreat, when some of them had gotten even more work done on their tops. Scarlett made hers out of red and blue bandana prints for a cowboy version — you know I love that one! And Meredith, who escaped all pictures somehow, made hers in hot pink and lime green — LOVE!
Please make note of Bonnie’s red and white version, because I’m kind of in love with that one:Aren’t they all wonderful? Thank you so much, ladies, for participating, and being such awesome pattern testers!
The pattern comes with complete step-by-step instructions with lots of illustrations, and even includes a sheet of labels for you to use, as you sew, to keep everything organized. It’s available in both printed and PDF versions in my Etsy shop.
And just for some laughs, I’ll leave you with a few choice quotes that came from our retreat that day:
“Shelly, I hope you have nerves of steel.”
“Everything I do is a mystery, but not like this one!”
“It’s too early for you to be a comedian.”
“How am I missing a piece?”
“This is Quilt in a Week, not Quilt in a Day.”
“I thought I was bein’ careful, but . . . ”
“Well, that’s how lotsa babies have gotten born. Folks thought they were bein’ careful, but . . .”
Love the retreat quotes & I agree on the red and white version: LOVE. Where are the triangles?
I love the pattern and seeing them done with different calorie variations. I couldn’t pick a favorite.
Awesome pattern Shelly. Love seeing all the different versions.
That was such a fun day! Still putting finishing touches on mine!
I am so glad that Shelly made an exception for me this time. She usually forbids me to be in her classes. I think it has something to do with my being tooo independent (ie. won’t follow instructions)
What delightful pictures, and those quotes at the end are perfect. =)
I love it! The pattern looks like fun.
Looks like a great class, Shelly, and I love the pattern and seeing it in so many colorways. Wish I could have been there!
Great pattern and sounds like a fun retreat. If I were closer, I would crash one. Put a copy of that pattern back for me! I’ve got a quilt to send to you. Let me know what your schedule’s like. I’m finally binding the last one. It’s taking forever because I keep admiring the quilting!
I saw this on another site and fell in love. I’ve been searching for a baby quilt idea that had two requirements, easy to make using my Blue Wren dies to cut the pieces and that would be appropriate for a traditional Indigenous family. I’ve modified your pattern to be a total of 34 x 38 inches using the center section. Thank you for making your pattern available years after you designed it and easy to download online.