The Gin & Tonic Quilt Pattern
Say hello to the Gin & Tonic Quilt. This two-color quilt is minimal yet striking; a perfectly balanced blend of simple components, much like a gin & tonic cocktail!
This is an intermediate pattern because it involves inset circles of a somewhat difficult size. However, it comes together very quickly! Just work patiently through those inset circle blocks. The pattern is appropriate for those who want to learn how to do inset circles. For those quilters, I recommend making some practice blocks using scraps until you are comfortable. Or, purchase some extra fabric (¼ - ½ yd of each color) to allow for some mistake blocks. For all quilters, just make sure you can give a little extra patience to the inset circle blocks.
Even though this quilt is a simple design, you can get different effects by playing with color combinations or scales of prints and textures. The quilting can also enhance the design. For the cover quilt, I decided to follow the contours of the piecing. I’m too wimpy to free motion quilt, and I couldn’t quite get a nice tight curve with my walking foot, so I ended up hand quilting the entire quilt using contrasting pink pearl cotton thread. This added some extra color and texture to the solid background, and the design enhanced the twisting effect of the quilt top. If you want to recreate the quilt top, I used Moda Bella Solids in Dark Teal and Betty’s Teal.
I am looking forward to creating this quilt a few more times! I already picked out metallic Christmas fabric in red and white for a holiday quilt (that might look like a candy cane?). I’m also interested in trying this pattern with my own ice dyed fabric. The dynamic color variations across the fabric should look pretty great with the large pieces needed for this quilt.
The pattern testers took the design and ran with it and tried several different colorways for different effects. This pattern is quite adaptable! You can see their quilts below, or check out more photos by searching the #GinandTonicQuilt hashtag on social media.
