Black Opals & Ribbon Candy

Christine Barnes has been a great source of inspiration in my quilting adventures. I have taken several of her classes and workshops, attended her Magical Fabrics, Special Effects retreat and have several of her books and patterns. She visited our quilt association back in August 2012 and offered her Luminosity workshop. While I had already completed this pattern and technique at her retreat, she gave me permission to work on one of a different pattern during her workshop, so I chose her Black Opals & Ribbon Candy pattern.

Sets of HSTs made for the Black Opals Blocks

Black Opals Laid Out on Design Wall

During the workshop, I worked on the colorful Black Opals half square triangles (HSTs) using Thangles paper templates and then tucked them away when stumped on the sashing fabrics. I made so many HSTs, that I had enough to piece two quilt tops, once I figured out my sashing to create the Ribbon Candy effect. Almost a year later, I pulled out all my HSTs and set out to create two different qult tops using the same pattern and sets of HSTs: One quilt used mostly cool color fabrics (teal, blue and purples) for the sashing and borders, while the other used mostly warm colors (pink and reddish-purple) to surround the Black Opals blocks. Once they were pieced, I then challenged myself to create slightly different quilted motifs.

Here are pictures of the Warm Version of Black Opals & Ribbon Candy and its progression:

Black Opals & Ribbon Candy Quilt Top Sans Borders

Here are the quilted center blocks and sashing...

Close Up of Black Opal Blocks Quilted

Serpentine Quilting for Sashing, Swirls and Pebbles in the Corner Pieces and Preview of Border Quilting

Border Quilting Evolution...I was stumped on the design for the longest time, but once inspiration struck, I had it quilted in just 2 days (despite it taking 2 hours to quilt each side!!)