My Mini Meadowland Quilt

I’m writing this blog post about 14 months after this Mini Meadowland Quilt was pieced! Oops!

It doesn’t really matter except that I already shared the quilt (the Cute Quilt) made from the LEFTOVER fabric from this quilt. Ha.

The quilt block used here is a variation on Meadowland Quilt Pattern from Then Came June.

Early last year, there was a Meadowland quilt-a-long. Watching it on Instagram, I loved seeing all the variations on this quilt. It’s so interesting to me how a block can look really different with fabric variations and by placing color and value in a different way. By having a lot of people simultaneously sharing variations of the same pattern during the quilt-a-long, the ability to see and consider each part of the block was amplified. It really helped me to consider all the components of the block and which I considered my favorites!

You see, the samples of this quilt from Then Came June all take a somewhat scrappy approach. The centers and corners are white, but the rest of the fabrics change from block to block.

But, there are a lot of components to the block and depending on fabric selection and placement, those features advance or recede. What your eye sees as “background” can vary. In TCJ’s version above, the middles and corners are white, so they read as background. For most of her blocks, the inner plus sign and the outer plus sign dominate. But the value variation that really speaks to me is the one that emphasizes the large, turned square. So when I began planning my quilt, I decided to use the same dark print for all of those parts.

I decided to make the inner plus scrappy so that I could put the Friendly Faces block in the middle. I pulled from my scraps for the extra little pieces to make the inner plus sign.

To balance out that scrappiness, I decided to make the larger plus all out of the same fabric. This adds cohesiveness and also works to dissolve the borders between blocks. I was lucky to find a print in my stash that combined my chosen colors!

Finally, I looked at the corners of each block and realized that I could put more friendly faces and scraps there! Using colors there that varied from block to block could help hide where one block ends and the next begins–I always love it when that happens, it makes a quilt so lively!

Now, those original meadowland quilt blocks are BIG! And to make my quilt, I wanted to use the Friendly Faces fabric, which is SMALL, so i had to do some quilt math and shrink the block down. (note: I have been asked to share the measurements of my block components, which I cannot do, since this is someone else’s pattern! You’ll need to buy the pattern and do the conversion yourself–however, if you can show me that you own the pattern, I will check your math!)

I love how my little quilt turned out!