The first time I saw the Coco line, I felt that wonderful/terrible duality of creators: I liked my source material so much, that I knew I’d struggle to find a project I felt was worthy of it. Each fabric blends beautifully with the next, and since there are five shades of each color, you can mix and match to cause either great contrast or a more subdued composition. 

Just look at all the vibrant colors and the subtle texture of this line: so many possibilities! So how did I make up my mind?

Well, there’s a sort of understanding that creativity must be chaotic. I, however, am NOT a fan of chaos. Disorder makes me go a little stir-crazy, and not in the productive way (more in the I-want-to-lock-up-my-study-and-never-look-at-it-again kind of way). So, to reign in the chaos that is the nature of my job, not to mention the inevitable chaos of having three kids, I resort to making lists.

So. Many. Lists.

A good To-Do list can make the overwhelming and ever-growing amount of things we need to do seem manageable. If I can look at it on a piece of paper and quantify the amount of time it’ll take me to complete each task, I can see how much I can get done in a day without completely losing my mind (in theory).

With life tied so closely to these lists, there are few things that give me more satisfaction than checking something off my list. Honestly, sometimes I cheat and write something that I just did onto a list, just so I can check it. It’s my way of telling myself that I’m getting stuff done.

So, I decided to share my personal idea of paradise by providing a pattern to make a quilt covered in checks. Haha, so let me introduce you to “Checked”.

Stress is the opposite of the point, so the blocks are easy, traditionally pieced, and will work flawlessly with both solids and prints.

For this one, I used Coco’s blender prints in rainbow colors and different shades of each color. It created almost a checkers effect, don’t you think? But if you’re not feeling the square grid, you can just as easily make the background of the check marks all the same color. I encourage you to play around and find what you like! 

Here are a couple of examples I whipped up to show you how your choices can make a totally different quilt:

I had some fun with the back of the quilt; I used the leftover scraps from the quilt top, cut them into squares, and made a stripe of rainbow to keep things lively.

The pattern comes with directions for three different sizes, so go on and get sewing! Thanks for hopping my way and have fun as you continue to browse! If you like this pattern, check out my website for more! Have an awesome day!

Don’t forget to use the #checkedquilt and #sewmarianapatterns so I can see your progress in social media.