Have you heard of Callaloo? It's a Caribbean dish made with a leafy green that is cooked in various ways based on region. According to my quick Google search, recipes for it originated in West Africa, Trinidad, and Jamaica.
Latifah Saafir has a new quilt pattern coming out soon called Callaloo. It's made with clams and uses her 12 inch Clammy template.
The pattern includes instructions for 10 different clams with cute names like Half Baked, Clam Pie, Clam Dip, and Happy As A Clam. There are options for using each clam individually within a quilt or mixing them all together.
I jumped on a chance to play with the pattern. I had no particular plan when I started. The clams are fun and fast to make. I got 12 clams from one yard of this green Alison Glass Sun Print I had in my stash. That was enough to make a (38.5"x51") crib sized quilt. The Caribbean blue solid is from Paint Brush Studios.
I had just enough of 4 different neutrals to make the background clams. Do you see that the outside clams are oversized to give you a little wiggle room and options for a wider binding? I like having that extra space to square up the quilt.
I chose to quilt this with simple straight lines 1" apart for a quick finish. That turned out to be a bold move on my part. Keeping the lines straight through four vertical clams is quite revealing of piecing skills. I'm not a queen of curves but Latifah's pattern and YouTube video instructions for how to sew the clams together was VERY helpful. I love it when following directions produces great results!
I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting and another Alison Glass print for the 1/2" single fold binding. Again, both from my stash.
The backing is a Dear Stella print from years ago. Actually, I'm just now remembering I bought this on sale during a 2015 Sewtopia Shop Hop in Chicago.
I was shopping with Latifah that day!
Does it look like garlic and onions with my leafy greens? Actually that was not my intention but then I did the Google search for this post (after I made the quilt) and now that's how I see it!
I hope you'll experiment with the Callaloo pattern. I'm watching the hashtag on Instagram to see how everyone adapts the recipe!
Happy spring!
