Anniversary Trip Around the World

quilts
A quilt lying on a bed, photographed at an angle. There is a large gradiant diamond in blues fading to a light gray and cream and back into a central dark blue diamond. It has a somewhat pixelated look.

Years created: 2017
Piecing technique: machine
Quilting technique: machine
Summary: I made this trip around the world quilt to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary. Blue is my husband’s favorite color, so I chose a variety of blues and leaned into a gray/steel contrasting color with some light blue and one light cream (vs white) fabric. I pieced the quilt using a strip-based technique while at quilt retreat so he wouldn’t see any of it. It has very basic machine-quilting along the diagonals and borders because I only worked on the quilting part when he wasn’t around. It wasn’t until later that year that I got my first sewing room where he wasn’t as likely to walk by and I could hide a project. I will include a little more detail about the method in the post itself.

Since I don’t have the pattern to hand, I’m not sharing math but it’s something most intermediate quilters could reverse-engineer (and I link another post below). Begin by sewing rows of equal-width strips together to make an enormous block:

A giant square-ish block made of rows of dark gray/blue fabrics getting lighter into cream and light blue, then into patterend and darker blues

Next, cut the block vertically into strips the width of your original single-fabric strips (including seam allowance).

A set of identical strips that look like they’re pieced from big pixels of the quilt’s fabrics

You then make the quilt quadrant by quadrant. For the first quadrant, leave column 1 as-is. In column 2, unpick the first seam (starting on the end with the color you want in the center) and move that block to the other end of the column. In column 3, unpick 2 blocks. In column 4, unpick 3. You’re essentially shifting the whole thing. It’s hard to describem, but it makes sense when you look at as you work through it.

For the other quadrants, start with column 2.

Throughout the process, you’ll want to lay things out or put them on a design wall and be sure you’re heading in the right direction. You can piece them as quadrants but I decided to assemble and connect the columns first and then piece it one by one.

Offset quilt columns up on a design wall, taking the form of a diamond with colors radiating between deep blues, deep blue-grays, and cream/almost white light blue

I chose borders to reflect the effect I was going for in the quilt itself. As a bonus, my husband enjoys making pixel art and was delighted by the method and effect.

A quilt top lying on the floor with medium and dark bordders added around it. This makes the center colors pop a bit more.

The finished quilt was queen-size, a little small for our king bed but just fine for us.

The finished quilt lying on a bed, photographed at an angle. Two teddy bears are perched on top of the pillow.

I also found a writeup of someone using a version of this method. There’s a slight difference in that you make a tube for the unpicking part. It means you don’t have to do any extra sewing but might make cutting the strips harder. Do what works for you!