Get it? its a play on words/songs. Bah humbug, I thought it was cute. Anyways, remember when I said I was going to be making my family quilts for Christmas? Well, I started working on the quilts. My mom’s quilt is the first to be made. I love my mom, so her quilt is special. They are all special right? But this is my mom we’re talking about. I decided to let her pick the pattern she wanted and the colors. She ended up picking the Triangle Fade pattern created by Lo and Behold Stitchery. Pretty right? I thought so, which is why I purchased the pattern awhile ago. https://www.loandbeholdstitchery.com/products/triangle-fade if you want to

I was a little perplexed that she would pick this quilt. It doesn’t seem anything like her. I was also a bit nervous because this is a quilt pattern that I’ve never attempted. Do you see how many triangles there are in this quilt top?! So many triangles! To say I was not confident, is an understatement. But I put my head down, read the quilt pattern, and decided to put my ruler and rotary cutter to work. This is a quilt for my mom after all!

Fast-forward to my mom and I heading to the local quilt shop, Cary Quilting Company. My mom started out wanting a red, white, and gray version but once we started viewing the stock, we knew that wasn’t possible due to the limitations of reds in stock. This quilt requires 12-15 colors per top. My mom then decided to go to her favorite color, purple. Why we didn’t start with that first baffles me. But I digress. We had much better luck with purples, so it was off to the races. We spent over 4 hours in the quilt shop holding up multiple purples and grays to make sure they went together. My mother was very overwhelmed with all the options available. She didn’t quite know what all went into the making of a quilt.

All in total, we ended up with 7 purples, 1 white, 6 grays, and 1 black.

Top to bottom,

1 Moda Bella Prune Purple
2 Kona Berry
3 Kona Dark Violet
4 Moda Bella Purple
5 Kona Crocus Purple
6 Kona Wisteria Purple
7 Kona Thistle
8 Kona White
9 Kona Silver Gray
10 Kona Quicksilver Gray
11 Kona Iron Gray
12 Kona Steel
13 Kona Graphite Gray
14 Ruby + Bee Stormy Dark Gray
15 Kona Black

For the backing we went with a beautiful purple floral design and the quilt shop had just enough for the backing, 3.75 yards. It was kismet. It was the only backing fabric my mother liked. Very pretty. The fabric is Playa Palms in Purple. Once we were finished with picking all of the fabric, my mom said “yes, we’re finished.” Sadly for her that was incorrect. We still had to pick out the quilting design for the quilt. Now I could have done this myself but again, I wanted her to know what all went into making a quilt. It took her a while but she found one she liked and we were done. She chose Saffron Blossom. It’s a nice design and goes great with the backing fabric. For the thread, we chose a variegated purple thread. Can you see why I called this Purple Rain?

Once I got everything I needed, I headed home, starched the fabric, and got to cutting. I cut over 150 triangles. Since the purples and grays were so close in intensity, I had to get organized. I laid out the colors in quilt order, then labeled them with the fabric name to be on the safe side.
To further stay organized, I wrote out what numbers were needed for each row. After sewing the corresponding colored triangle to the row, I would mark through the number so that I know it was complete. This really helped especially on days when I was forced to stop to do other things.

The quilt came together quite quickly. I was able to get the quilt top done in a week from start (starching fabric and cutting triangles) to finish (prepping the quilt top and bottom for quilting). I have to say I absolutely fell in love with it. My mom picked well. I wanted to keep it for myself once it was complete, but alas I could not. It was a Christmas present after all.

Here is the final product and I absolutely love it. I even contemplated stealing it for myself, but I know I couldn’t. After all, it is my mother’s Christmas present, not mine. This is definitely not the best picture I’ve ever taken, but I was in a bit of a rush as I had to get it to the quilters.

I got it to the quilters, quick, fast, and in a hurry. This place fills up quick with quilting requests. Thankfully I put in my requests awhile back, so all I had to do was drop it off and wait. Even if I drop it off after my quilt was supposed to be finished, my quilt automatically gets moved to the front of the line. Thank you quilt company! Two days later and it’s complete. So grateful. The saffron blossom quilt design was the right way to go. My mom has great taste.It’s gorgeous with the variegated thread choice. All I have to do now is add binding and this gorgeous quilt is all finished and ready to go under the tree for Christmas.