Staccato Quilt - the ombre throw version

Today I'm sharing the Ombre Staccato throw quilt! Yes, another Kona solids ombre gradient, this time in blue. I just love ombre quilts in all forms, but these single colour ombre gradients are so calm and serene, yet fun at the same time.

Staccato is the third pattern in the Bar Quilts series, mixing up the bar theme with dashed lines this time. It's a fun, quick make and is suitable for slightly advanced beginners. We dabble with a little bit of strip piecing in this quilt, and there are options for both multi-colored and two-tone versions.

The Staccato quilt pattern is available in the Penny Spool Quilts pattern shop.

Staccato Quilt Pattern

The Staccato quilt pattern is a large block quilt. It uses a single large scale block to create a sleek, pared-down look, but it is by no means boring. The design lends itself well to using up scraps, leftover fabrics from another project, or showcasing a favourite print.

The ombre gradient of the Kona solids I used in this throw give the effect depth as the center appears to move back and the top and bottom strips pop out more.

Staccato Quilt Pattern Sizes

The Staccato quilt pattern comes in three sizes: Pillow, Baby / Crib, and Throw / Lap.

The pillow size is fat quarter and fat eights friendly, and is also perfect for a wallhanging.

The baby size is designed so you can get away with a single length of fabric for the backing.

The throw version I'm showing here a great size for the couch, or to keep in the car for impromptu picnics. You could even use my tips for waterproofing the back so you can picnic on damp grass as well.

The size of the squares grows with each quilt size. So the design stays the same, and there are the same number of squares in each quilt size, but the size of those squares goes up with each quilt size.

The Staccato quilt pattern makes a square quilt, but the design is easily turned into a rectangle with the addition of wider top and bottom borders.

Make It Two-Tone

A few of my testers have made this quilt in a two-tone option, keeping all the squares the same colour and combining it with a darker background. It gives the pattern a lot of extra wow factor and the squares really pop with this arrangement.

The Staccato quilt pattern includes instructions for both a multi-coloured and a two-tone version.

Straight Line Quilting

I used the walking foot on my domestic sewing machine (a Bernina Aurora 440QE) to quilt the ombre Staccato throw. My machine doesn't have the biggest throat space but the size of this throw quilt fits quite nicely. 

I tried out quite a few different designs on paper, but ultimately decided on a large crosshatch, skimming the corners of the blue squares with each line. I didn't want to distract from the sleek and pared-down look of the quilt design, but I knew the large expanse of background needed something.

Kona Solids

I used an ombre gradient of Kona solids by Robert Kaufman for this Staccato quilt. I love Kona solids for their huge variety of colours. It makes it so simple to find just the right fabrics to make up an ombre gradient.

When choosing an ombre gradient, it's important to pick all the colours with a similar "tone", so if you go blue, you want either all grey-ish blues, or all bright blues, or even with an aqua/turquoise hint. Mixing those hues will not result in the same effect, and while it can still look good, it just doesn't have quite the same effect.

So having a large selection of colours to choose from makes this a whole lot easier.

This quilt uses Kona Celestial, Delft, Dresden Blue, Bluebell and Blue, and Kona White for the background.

Bar Quilts series

Raise The Bar is one of four quilt patterns in the Bar Quilts series that is being released this year. They are all bold, striped patterns that are easy to make and  a quick, satisfying project for the limited sewing time a lot of us have these days.

You can find all four patterns here:

Raise the Bar
Spinning Top
Staccato
Bar Code (coming August 2021)

Not a fan of square throws? Check out this tutorial for turning the square Bar Quilts patterns into a rectangular throw or a twin size quilt.

Ombre Staccato quilt materials

Quilt Pattern: Staccato Quilt by Penny Spool Quilts
Fabrics: Kona Solids by Robert Kaufman
Backing: Bedsheet (I know! I will have a blog post on that soon)
Pieced and quilted on my Bernina Aurora 440 QE

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