Alaskan Lights Quilt

I've blogged about this a couple times, and I finally got it done! This has been such an awesome project! And it was not easy to photograph because it was really hard to get the colors to pop the way they do in real life.

Last year a friend who travels often, gave me a panel of alaskan animals and a yard of coordinating marbled fabric. In the last couple of months the northern lights have been showcased on the news and I thought of the fabric. How perfect would that be!

I cut out the panel and then needed to decide what to do with the marbled fabric to break it up. I came up with the modified bear paw pattern that would allow me to have a solid square in the center, showing off more of the marbled fabric.

One of my fave blocks! Love how the colors glow out of the fabric.

I got some help from my DH to figure out the measurements and got to work. I LOVE how the block pattern came out. It shows off the amazing fabric beautifully, it looks like an alaskan-inspired pattern with the bear paw, and the black fabric makes it also look like the northern lights at night.

The backing is actually a fabric I've had in my stash for years.  It has been waiting to back the perfect quilt, and it seems I found that perfect quilt. It matches the theme wonderfully, as well as the colors. The joke is that I used about 3 yards to complete this backing and I still have at least 2 yards left. I guess I over-purchased, but now I have enough for another backing.

It felt like the best quilting pattern was a thin, long meander. I only quilted on the pattern fabric, not on the black, to uphold the movement of the marbled fabric. I also used a variegated blue thread. I wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but I'm super happy with the results! I finished it off with a hand-binding.

The best part was that I used just about every scrap of the fabric, and you can't even tell where I had to do some patchwork to complete the border because of the pattern. Awesome! I love this finish! It is my hanging prominently on my display wall when you walk in the door. I love it so much.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finished Friday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Come on by and see what everyone has been working on.