A Broken Dishes Quilt In Bright Colors

  Sometimes you have 4 or 5 fabrics that you like together, but they don't really have a theme or common motif. This quilt started with about 5 bright fabrics...a lime green marble, a cobalt blue geometric squiggle,  yellow wavy stripes, a hot pink and wine informal plaid, and a turquoise blue with dots. I wanted something very easy and a little random, so I chose a Broken Dishes pattern.

   Each Broken Dish block is 6" finished, an it is composed of 4 half-square triangles. 2 half-square triangles are made from a light and a dark 4" square, with a diagonal line drawn across the light 4" square. A seam is sewn 1/4" on each side of the drawn line, and then a cut is made through the line. When pressed open, you have 2 half-square triangles that can be trimmed to 3 1/2". When you repeat the process, you have 4 identical 3 1/2" half-square triangles that can be sewn into the 6" block.
   While the 5 main fabrics formed the starting point, additional bright colored fabrics were added to the mix for fun and variety...even if there was only enough for one block. This means a fabric could be added with as little as 2 4" squares! Here are 2 close up views of some of the blocks:

The blocks to the left show the cobalt blue fabric paired with a light turquoise dot fabric for one 6" block, and the same cobalt blue fabric paired with a hot pink fabric for another block. Likewise, the turquoise dot print is paired with a black stripe fabric in one block, and the pink plaid in another. The 4 blocks are arranged for diagonal movement.

These blocks show that blocks with the yellow wavy lines can be placed next to each other to form a pinwheel between the two 6" blocks. They also show that a fabric like the bright lime can sometimes be the light fabric (when paired with the cobalt blue) and also be the dark fabric (when paired with the yellow wavy line fabric). This arrangement adds interest because your eye has to jump from the lime in the top left to the lime in the bottom right.





   The quilt was framed with a triple border: the innermost border is a purple marble picking up a purple polka dot print in the quilt, a middle border of alternating squares of the 5 original fabrics, and another border of the purple marble. It is bound with a yellow binding to make the yellows in the quilt pop.
   One of the most fun parts of this quilt was making the squares and laying them out...what do you think of this quilt? Will you try one soon with your fabrics?