Grey and Teal Hexagon Quilt with Coordinating Throw Pillows

This one is a BIG finish that I am really happy to be able to share.  

My youngest sister got married last weekend and this was her wedding gift.  She asked for a couch-sized quilt with the caveat that her fiance is 6'3'' so it had to be long enough to cover his whole length.  Having made a quilt for my husband who is 6'2'' that was no problem.  :)  

The wedding colors were dark grey/black and a very pretty dark teal color.  I went with those colors and then expanded the teal to include other shades of teal and blue, plus added light grey and white.  

I made the pattern myself after browsing online for modern hexagon quilts.  My design is, I feel, a combination of this, this, and this.  I tried to incorporate the interesting use of 'negative space' between the hexagons - keeping them separated by about 1/4'' rather than right up next to each other.  It is random in the sense that it is an unplanned splash of colors, but organized in the sense that it looks like someone took a paintbrush and made a swish/stroke of color along the plain background.  I am usually a traditionalist when it comes to quilt patterns but I really really like this one!  Just modern enough, clean and simple, yet pretty.   The color palette has a lot to do with it and I have the bride to thank for that!

The background is a solid Kona dark grey (there is one long seam down the middle but its practically invisible underneath the hexagons).  The hexagons are a mixture of solids and small prints.  They are all appliqued on by hand.  I love hand applique and haven't done any major hand projects lately so I really enjoyed doing that part of it.  

The back of the quilt is a nice light grey and light teal print and the binding is a grey-on-grey small circle print. 

After much, much, much internal debate and gathering of opinions of family and friends I decided to have this quilt professionally quilted.  I have never done that before but I think it was the right choice for this quilt.  The interlocking swirly pattern looks fabulous and is way beyond my machine quilting skills.  The quilt will be really sturdy, it will hold up well to washings and cat hair, and having it quilted at our local quilt shop gave me the sewing time to make three dresses for the wedding (more on those later).  I will admit, though, that I'm itching for a hand quilting project this summer or fall...  

All my quilts get my initials and the year on them.  

(Not a bad mitered corner there as well, if I do say so myself...)  :)

Then, I added two throw pillows to the gift.  They are 18'' pillows and made mostly from scraps leftover from making the quilt itself (I ended up having to buy more yardage for the pillow backs).  Again, simple and clean, leaning-towards-modern in design.  Coordinating but not matchy-matchy.  I made these patterns up as well from the scrap sizes I had left.  

The newlywed's couch should be pretty snuggly!  

It will also work as a bed quilt if they want it to - it fit nicely on top of our queen mattress so it can do double duty.   Due to visiting the other side of the family I was not able to be there for the gift opening big reveal but I've heard they loved it.