Making a neutral quilt comes with it's own set of challenges. With all of the wonderfully bright fabric available, it's probably not your natural instinct to limit yourself, or your quilts, to soft, low-volume colors. Why would we do that when we have talented designers like Alison Glass, Tula Pink or the ladies of Ruby Star Society creating highly saturated new fabric designs every season!?
Even though rainbow quilts are incredibly fun to make, they don't always fit well with our home decor. A neutral quilt, however, is able to be tossed into most living rooms or bedrooms without making a huge statement. They are there for added warmth and snuggles, but you don't have to get all new matching throw pillows.
The quilt used in this post is the Stars Hollow quilt pattern. You can find it here!
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3 Tips to Make a Neutral Quilt
These three tips may seem obvious, but sometimes it's nice to follow a set of rules when designing and creating outside of your comfort zone.
- Pick only one bold color. Use cream, egg shell, ivory, mother of pearl, or any shade of white or gray, but once you start adding multiple pops of color, your neutral quilt will stop being neutral. In this Stars Hollow quilt my one pop of color is that scrumptious golden mustard.
- Use some solid fabric. To make these neutral prints pop, I accented them with a light cream solid fabric. That solid fabric can be scrappy, like in my neutral Triangle Jitters quilt. Incorporating solid fabric also makes a classic quilt pattern feel more modern.
- A classic quilt pattern will add sophistication. This third rule is optional because even the most minimal and modern quilt patterns will look sophisticated in a neutral color palette. However, if you use a classic quilt block like the sawtooth star, churn dash or even a simple 9-patch, the combination of traditional and modern is stunning!
The Stars Hollow Quilt: Classic with a Twist
I love the Stars Hollow quilt pattern for a few different reasons:
- It's fat quarter friendly! Grab 8 fat quarters and some yardage for the background and you're all set! If you want to make this pattern from your stash, but don't have enough background yardage, use scraps of similar color and volume.
- It plays off the traditional sawtooth star block. So even though it looks very modern once assembled, it still has that old-world patchwork feel.
- It truly is a beginner-friendly pattern. Made from half-square triangles, flying geese and squares, this pattern is wonderful for a newbie sewer.
Neutral Quilt Fabric
Most of the fabric in this neutral stars hollow quilt are from the Surface line by Figo Fabrics.
Trending patterns!
- Fat Quarters: Waves, Dashes and Crescent in different colors by Amy Van Luijk
- Background: Kona Natural
- Backing: Boxed in Flax by Erin Dollar
- Binding: Lines in Ochre by Amy Van Luijk
I just love the concept!
This quilt stole my heart.. I love it so much.
Stunning project and worth IT to think about.
OMG! I have to make this! After I finish the one I’m working on! Absolutely love the softness of it. Can’t wait!
Contrast is over rated.
It’s absolutely stunning! I usually go for bright and bold, but after seeing (and bookmarking) this beauty, I’m eager to go neutral for something different!
love the soft pallet on this quilt.
Beautiful. I do love the quilt pattern (I purchased) and the neutral colors. It would be nice to just see the whole quilt in one picture rather than only portions. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love this pattern and it is timely because I am on the hunt for an inspiring pattern. One thing that jumps out at me is that the placement of the pieces lends itself well to machine quilting, without a lot of complicated marking methods. I think I can just follow the pieces to do the machine quilting.
I love your quilt, just as it is. Do you want to tell which fabrics you have used and if they are still available?
Does the pattern include instructions for other sizes? I want to make a king-sized quilt from the Stars Hollow Pattern in neutrals for my niece for her wedding.
That sounds like a lovely gift! The Stars Hollow pattern only comes in a 50″ x 50″ throw size, but if you made four and sewed them together, it would be 100″ x 100″!
I have just finished this for a friends grandchild and its stunning! What a great pattern