The Kristen Quilt Pattern in Eye Candy

How stinking adorable is the new Eye Candy fabric collection from Ruby Star Society? This vibrant, playful collection combines one of my all-time favorite prints—balloon animals!—with an array of fresh new designs and colors. It was perfect for the cover of the Kristen Quilt Pattern.

What I really love about Eye Candy are the blues. While many collections feature navy or blue-greens, this one includes gorgeous cobalt shades that stand out in such a unique way. I go through blues like these so fast because they are one of my favorite colors and so few collections have them!

For the cover of the Kristen Quilt, I used two charm packs from the Eye Candy collection. Since the pattern only calls for 72 squares, I was able to pick and choose which fabrics would pop the most against the Starry background. 

For the accent fabric, I used Speckled in Flamingo, a beautiful hot pink that adds a fun burst of color. The background is Mini Starry in Neon Pink, which pairs so well with the other prints. And pretty much every print. Does neon pink match everything? Pretty much.

For the backing, I had to go for the blue balloon animals print, and for the binding, I chose the Cuby print in blue. I loved how the binding pulled together the different colors from the quilt top, creating a nice frame for the design. And after seeing the blue stripe in person, I’ve completely fallen in love with it—I’ll definitely be using it to bind a future quilt!

The quilting was done by Heidi from Piece and Joy Quilting Co., and she absolutely nailed it with a whimsical panto design by Julie Hirt. The pattern complements the balloon animal shapes without being too literal, and the contrast with the quilt’s squares is just perfect.

While Eye Candy isn’t available in stores yet, I found a couple of shops with charm packs for pre order (see here and here). In the meantime, be sure to grab your copy of the Kristen Quilt Pattern to start planning your next project.