A few months ago, I accidentally made an Adventureland Quilt in a weekend. Let me tell you how it happened!
Friday morning routines
I often drive to Brandon (our closest city) on Friday mornings. While there, I run all of my errands (grocery pick up, medical appointments, trips to Staples, and most importantly: a stop at Starbucks for a chai latte). One of my favourite things about being self-employed is that I can arrange my schedule in order to avoid the busy weekends while I do my running around. It. Is. Amazing.
Lately, I’ve been adding a stop to my Friday runs… I’ve taken to dropping in at my localest quilt shop (the fabulous Fabriculous). Wendy recently renovated the shop and added some extra square footage, which allowed her to display the hundreds of bolts of fabric she had been storing at her previous location while her shop made the move to Brandon.
I call this new room of wall-to-wall bolts the Mystery Cave of Wonders, because you really wouldn’t believe the treasures she has in there. Every time I stop in, I find something new… It's so fun!
Adventureland Quilt Inspiration
On this particular Friday, I found her employee Janelle pulling fabric to make an Adventureland quilt. She had the pattern printed out and was debating colour choices.
I was intrigued… I had seen lots of these quilts on Instagram, and had heard how fast and easy they were. I thought…. Maybe I could make one this weekend?? But what fabric should I use? I turned to the Mystery Cave of Wonders for inspiration.
Fabric Inspiration
The first thing that caught my eye was a bolt of a small-scale floral fabric that reminded me of a post I had seen on Instagram years ago. The fabric was so pretty, and I had always regretted that I had never purchased any.
I checked with Wendy, and this bolt was indeed part of that same collection (Garden Delights II by Grey Sky Studios for In The Beginning Fabric)! So I hunted through The Cave and found several other bolts. Before long, I had accumulated enough to make an Adventureland quilt.
We debated colour options and placement, and when all the decisions were made Wendy chopped up the fabric and I went happily on my way with my weekend plans sorted!
Cutting Fabric
I didn’t actually start working on my Adventureland quilt until after lunch on Saturday - my Stripology ruler made quick work of the yardage and I had a lil’ stack of strips in no time.
I filmed myself doing this step so that I could make a Reel for Instagram, and I can assure you that setting up the equipment definitely took longer than the actual cutting.
The only part of the process that gave me pause was cutting the background fabric for the large triangles. I had to read the instructions a few times before I understood how to do it, but I eventually got it and had four giant triangles cut in a jiffy.
Piecing the quilt top
The Adventureland quilt comes together really quickly because it’s essentially a pile of strip piecing.
I listened to a podcast and snacked as I sew sew sewed away, and I had a completed quilt top by suppertime on Saturday!
Given that there were sections with bias edges, I sewed a victory lap around the edge of my quilt top. That helped secure the edges, made sure that no seams would pop, and generally made it easier to longarm.
Longarming my Adventureland quilt
On Sunday morning I loaded the quilt onto the longarm and quilted it with Rolling Hills (my new favourite pantograph). To me, the hills look like mini rainbows, which is a nice nod to the colour palette.
While the machine was doing its thing, I made a scrappy binding using the leftover strips. It looks so cute all wrapped up on its binding spool (that I bought at Stitch Supply Co).
Big Stitch Binding
On Sunday afternoon I settled on the couch to attach the binding. Like I did with my Scrap Stash Plus quilt, I used the Big Stitch method. It’s so fast that I finished my rainbow Adventureland quilt by suppertime on Sunday.
This is a FAST project. I made the throw size, which finishes at 60” x 60”. It’s so fun and happy that I currently have it draped over the back of my couch so I can look at it all the time!
Here I am holding it at Fabriculous, a week after I bought the fabric. Love that!
I also made a Reel about the construction of this quilt. Check it out by clicking on the image below!
Have you made an Adventureland Quilt? Did you find it to be a super fast make like I did? Let me know in the comments below!
