Riley's Showstopper

I finally put the last few stitches in the binding for my Riley Blake challenge quilt yesterday.  It's no secret that I really struggled with trying to figure out how to use these fabrics.  But on the day that I made myself sit down and figure something out, I took out my entire stash of solids to play around with.

Once I placed the orange circle print with the magenta and placed the chevron print (which I had previously been thinking was more blue) in with the aqua and turquoise, it all made sense and clicked into place for me.  Rainbow, of course!!  So now what to do with them?

In the comments for my Stumped post, someone suggested that I limit myself to using something I already had instead of searching for some brand new project to try.  Awesome idea!  I went to my list of patterns that had been collected but not used and came across the Showstopper pattern by Don't Call Me Betsy.  When she released this paper pieced pattern, I fell in love and bought it immediately but wasn't sure when I'd get the chance to use it.  At 96 pieces per block, it's by far the most complex paper pieced block I've tried and I can't really imagine making an entire quilt from it.  A mini works perfectly.  Each block is 12" finished, so this mini ended up at 24" square.

Elizabeth is a genius - all the secondary shapes that this pattern makes really keeps your eye moving all over the mini.

I really liked getting to make the prints the focal points of the blocks while all the solids keep those shapes so crisp and sharp!

The spiral quilting from my Brightly Broken mini made another appearance here.  Instead of white thread, I actually used a light lavender.

It doesn't show up too well in the photos, but in person I think it adds a little extra interest.

The only fabric from the challenge bundle that I didn't use was the grey and white stripe.  I would have used it for the binding, but knew that I would run short.  Instead, I used more of the charcoal grey solid and threw in a few bias strips from my print scraps.  I really like the effect of those bonus pops of color around the edges!

So with this finish, I've finally come to the end of my "have-to" sewing list and only have my WIPs nagging the back of my mind.  But instead of marching straight into those, I think I'm going to give my sewing machine a little break for a while and recharge my batteries.

Linking up:

Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish It Up Friday