A Quilty Finish ~ Aztec Themed Quilt

Earlier last month I finished a commissioned Aztec themed quilt & thought y’all might like to see how it came to be. Luckily I took pictures of the process – well – except the finished quilt! I’m really kicking myself about that one! There is a finished top picture & some views of the quilting from the back. I think y’all will still get the picture. ; )

Aztec Themed Quillt

The request was for an Aztec themed quilt, so I looked up colorways for that theme. After sending some examples of color combinations & getting an approval, I picked out the solids on the right in the picture below…

The plaid flannel was requested after I picked out the solid colors. I’ll admit that threw me for a loop because it didn’t really say “Aztec” to me. The center of the plaid reads a little black, but it’s actually dark blue & green.

I was all ready to start cutting things out when I got notice that they didn’t really like the plaid. Those things happen sometimes with a commission & I wanted the client to be happy with the finished quilt. Several back & forths later they settled on this fabric…

I liked this one much better as well! It’s like a blanket or poncho type material. Very soft & much wider than quilting cotton at 60″. Perfect since the requested quilt size was 52″ x 75″.  Since this fabric had such a linear pattern, I decided to do a strip style quilt. I divided the patterned fabric into 3 equal sections using the lines as a guide.

After doing some quilt math, I cut the solids into 6″ & 3″ strips.

The layout of the colors was to mimic sand dunes & sky, which comes from the original color inspiration.

Time to Sew

Since the quilting cotton was only 45″ wide, I had to seam two pieces together. I alternated the seams, with a shorter piece on one end to keep from having a seam down the middle.

I really like the look of the small strips with the larger strips!

First half done…

All finished & time to square up the edges & corners.

And here’s the finished top! This is the only picture I have of the whole front because I forgot to take one like this when it was quilted.

I decided to reverse the color order around the middle. Now I want one too! : D

Finishing Up

I did take some pictures of sewing on the binding, but not the quilting. You can see a little of the quilting on the front in this picture.

I used a cream colored thread on the sand colored areas & blue thread on the sky area. My bobbin thread was the color of the back shown below.

I quilted wavy lines in the sand & sky & followed some of the straight lines on the Aztec print. Also, I serged the edges of the quilt before sewing on the binding. It makes it so much easier!

As much as I wish I had an awesome outdoor photo of the finished quilt, I do not. That’s something I definitely need to get better at! I did realize that empty thread spools make great binding holders…

I used a bit of tape to hold the beginning end & rolled it right on up. Knew I was saving them for something! : D

Check out these other quilty finishes!

• Broken Rows Baby Quilt
• Finished Flimsy ~ Postcar from Sweden Quilt
• Making a Splash ~ A Quilt Making Story

Pin it for later!