On my travels this past winter I pulled up to a quilt shop in a town that I was visiting and as I walked up to the shop I saw this quilt in the window and went holy cow that’s my quilt. It’s so much fun when I see one of my designs hanging in a shop and especially in the window. Unfortunately, the sun was behind me and there is a lot of reflection in the window so it’s not the greatest photo.

I designed Ticker Tape Parade several years ago for Northcott’s fabric line Chroma by Deborah Edwards. The fabric line is still available and I love the gradated mottling in it. I found the whole Chroma line at Fort Worth Fabric Studio. The zigzag lines in the quilt are gradated from dark to light or light to dark making for the illusion of movement within the design as well as add depth and dimension to the quilt top.

This quilt can be made with 2 different methods – regular piecing or paper piecing.

The regular piecing uses half square rectangles to create the odd angle flying geese units.

Or the units can be paper pieced – this tutorial shows my Merry & Bright pattern being paper pieced but the technique is the same for the odd angled flying geese units in Ticker Tape Parade.

While I was at the shop I saw this wonderful line of fabric but didn’t buy it so I ended up making a second trip to buy the fabric which I think will look great in this pattern. The fabrics have lots of texture with a subtle background. Pairing them with a tone on tone grey will make the colours pop.

I started to make the quilt with Grunge fabrics in 2022 but then it didn’t get finished. I have all the pieces made and just need to put the rows together. I accidentally cut the pieces the wrong size so it is smaller than I was expecting but with a border it will make a fantastic wall hanging or a wonderful baby quilt. I better add this to the UFO list for the summer to finish up – but first I have to find the pieces which are in a ziplock bag somewhere in my studio – I’m sure I saw them last week but can’t put my finger on them today. I’m sure I put them in a very logical spot!

My friend made a version and used all prints. I love it – it turned out great. She didn’t gradate the fabrics the way I did and it works really well with the bold colours she used. And the yellow inner border just frames the blocks and design so well. This pattern would also lend itself quite nicely to scraps – especially bright colours with a dark background such as black, a really deep dark purple or blue.

Anyway this post all came about because I saw my quilt Ticker Tape Parade hanging in the window at a quilt shop and I just wanted to share this very unexpected surprise with you.

Until next time,

Happy Quilting