A Unique Ombre Quilt Featuring the Same Sky Pattern

Today, I am sharing the details of my Same Sky quilt, by far one of my most asked about quilts! Between the fabrics, the layout, the quilting and the pattern, you guys have all the questions and I’m here to answer them.

Most of the questions fall into one of the following categories, so feel free to skip ahead if you’re looking for something specific:

Pattern

First things first, the pattern details. This stunning pattern was written by Modernly Morgan and is called the Same Sky Quilt. It is fat quarter friendly and looks equally as good in an ombre layout as a random layout. It comes in four different sizes; baby, square throw, rectangular throw, and bed. I made the rectangular throw size which finishes at a very generous 60″ x 80″. It is a block based pattern and a great candidate for chain piecing to speed up assembly. Lastly, aside from being beautiful, there is a special meaning behind the pattern. It was written for Morgan’s husband and the original quilt was gifted to him when he went overseas for a military assignment. Morgan says, “Though we may be separated by distance, we still sleep under the same sky.” So sweet, right?

Fabric

I have made several of Morgan’s patterns over the years, because I just love them all. When I opened my fabric shop, I reached out to her to see if I could be a pattern tester for her upcoming releases. After a couple quilts, I started to get questions on the fabrics I used so I started to bundle the fabric with background and binding and sell them as kits.

The original Same Sky bundle includes 16 fat quarters of fabrics from various collections by Rifle Paper Co., Art Gallery Fabrics, Dear Stella, Riley Blake Designs and PBS Fabrics. Unfortunately, some fabrics are no longer available so the bundle has been reinvented a few times over the years while still maintaining the original warm color gradient. It comes in and out of stock frequently so always check back to see if more become available. It is also offered as a quilt kit if you’d like background and binding fabric as well. We’ve also expanded the bundle to accommodate the larger bed size quilt as well so reach out if that’s something you’re interested in.

For the backing, I chose a coordinating Art Gallery print, Lilliputian, from the Lilliput collection by Sharon Holland. I love how the smaller scale of the print pairs with the larger scale blocks from the quilt top. Lastly, I finished the quilt with a gold stripe binding to bring it all together. A striped binding is always my go-to and I love that this one is thin and on a diagonal. It is from the Daybreak collection by Fran Gulick for Riley Blake Designs.

Quilt Layout

I really wanted to see how the pattern would look as a color fade so I did some pre-planning with my blocks. What worked best was keeping all the same fabric together in groups and then laying the groups out in the gradient I was trying to achieve. From there, I paired fabrics of similar colors for each block. Then, when I was starting to run low on purples, for example, I added the pink (or next color in the gradient) to that block. Those mixed blocks would be the transition pieces into the next gradient. You can see from the (terrible) picture of my design wall how this worked out a little better. Once I was happy with the final layout, I assembled the quilt top like normal.

Quilting

The beautiful quilting on this quilt was done by Melonie at Quilty Lab Creations. I discovered her studio when I was searching for Longarm quilters in the DFW area and she has been a dream to work with! The designs and quality of work are amazing and she has always been speedy with my quilts and accommodated some pretty quick deadlines.

We selected the Orange Dream pantograph from the Longarm League and I love how the curves in the stitching soften the harder angles of the blocks in the quilt top. We used a white thread so the design is more subtle and lets the color gradient shine.

It’s no surprise this beauty didn’t stay with me long after it was finished. I had a close friend’s husband reach out and ask if he could purchase it for his wife to gift her for Mother’s Day and I of course said yes! It makes me so happy to see these quilts used and loved by others 🙂 It also gives me an excuse to plan for another Same Sky quilt. I love the color gradient so much, I think I’d go for it again but in a different color scheme… maybe something on the cooler side this time.

So tell me, have you made this quilt yet? Would you do an ombre layout or random? Until next time, happy creating!