My husband and I LOVE traveling. It's essential to us. 

I used to daydream that I was a gypsy traveling through Europe, making a living by tap dancing on the street. But I digress...

So when I started designing quilts, this theme was destined to find its way in. 

These travel quilts have been among my most popular and have been so much fun to sew and design. Let's take a look at some favorites...

 

Map of the World Quilt

This quilt pattern can be found in my book, Scrappy Bits Appliqué . I've made it more than a dozen times and in lots of ways. I love this one!

This is the size that comes in the book, and I love separating the colors by temperature. So you see the cool fabrics at the poles and the warmer fabrics around the Equator. 

This gold map is the same pattern, only enlarged by 30%. Love it in all these golds, dotted with dusty blues. 

Here is the same enlarged pattern but made with all solids! It really changes the whole effect of the quilt. 

 

Globe Quilts

I'm always on the lookout for interesting silhouettes, and the idea of doing a globe struck me one day. The pattern can be found here , and includes 4 different views of the globe, each in 3 different sizes!

This guy is the size large. I love how striking the gold looks on that cobalt blue background. This one lives on the wall of our bedroom-- it's one of my favorites I've made, and I love being able to look at it every night!

This is the size medium, and I did the same trick with the color temperature-- I placed cooler colors (blues/purples) at the north and south poles and warmer colors at the center of the earth.

This is the size small. I had a lot of fun with this soft palette, and this guy lives on the wall of my studio! 

This is the final view of the globe (remember the pattern includes 4 different views of the Earth, each in 3 sizes) and I made him into a fun pillow! Find the tutorial for the pillow here. This one lives on my son's bed! :)

 

Skyline Quilts

Again, I'm always on the lookout for interesting silhouettes that I can turn into quilts. I was looking at the Austin skyline one evening as the sun was going down, the city silhouetted against the sky and I thought--  I HAVE to make that into a quilt. 

A few years later and I have over 100 different city skyline patterns!

I have some skylines available as Printed Patterns and the rest can be found as PDF Patterns . You can search for specific cities and filter the patterns as you look through them on my site. I bet I have your favorite (or at least one of your favorite) city as a pattern!

 

I'd love to hear from you! What kind of map do you think would be fun to turn into a quilt? Do you have a favorite city you'd like to quilt? Leave a comment below.