The Willow Quilt in Habitat

Do you have a fabric collection that you just love? For me, it's Jay McCarroll's Habitat. I think it is partially because it came out around the time I started quilting, but it's also just really great - so quirky and unexpected. It's so much cooler than I am.

Several years ago I made this quilt with the collection and the remaining fabric has just been collecting dust on my shelf ever since. My favorite print is the dark gray dot that I used in the cornerstones and it is a big part of why I decided to make this particular pattern (The Willow Quilt) with the fabric - I love how it works with the gray solid.



I also really wanted to make a fat quarter version of the pattern. Even though Willow is fat quarter friendly, I hadn't made a fat quarter version yet.

Since I am a little short on Habitat fabric, I added in a few solids to mix things up. I never had the entire collection, and there are a couple of prints where I am down to tiny scraps so I had to omit those.

This is possibly the first time (or at least one of a very few times) that I have made more than one quilt using a single collection (not counting the solids) and it was pretty fun to work with the same medium for different results.



Since this is the 3rd version of The Willow Quilt I have made (version 1 and version 2), it was also interesting to work with the same pattern using different fabrics. It's always amazing what a difference it makes.

For the backing fabric, I used a Robert Kaufman print that I have had in my stash for a while. There are still large cuts of Habitat out there (like this one), but none of them are my favorite prints and I am trying to use what is in my stash so this print worked really well.

Pattern: The Willow Quilt
Finished Size: 60" x 72"
Fabric: mostly Habitat by Jay McCarroll
Batting: Quilter's Dream Cotton Select