Old Muscat Souq Using Pinks and Reds

The Old Muscat Souq is one of my favorite modern quilt patterns. It uses fat quarters to create a star design, highlighted by inset corners. Taken as a whole the blocks intersect and form a design and lines of their own.



 
This version of the Old Muscat Souq has been in the works for 1 and 1/2 years. Yikes! I finished the quilt top a while ago, but it sat at the bottom of a pile for too long. I wasn't sure how to finish it, or quite what to do with it.

This quilt was a bit of a stretch for me stylistically. I usually choose very muted background fabrics for my quilts. However, I just loved this leaf fabric by Art Gallery Fabrics (see the image below)!

I decided to use it in this quilt by pairing it with a bundle of solids. The idea would be that the solids would help tone down the busy background fabric and overall balance out the quilt.

I love this bundle of fabric from Fabric Bubb. Mixing up the fabrics for the blocks of the quilt was so fun. Of course I had a hard time telling some of the colors apart since I am red/green colorblind. A couple colors looked exactly the same to me.

However, I call in backup whenever I get confused. My oldest daughter and husband help me reorder fabrics or separate them if I get confused. My son, Jack, is no help. He can't see color either.

I love how the solids play off each other while also providing a high contrast with the background fabric.

I think when I first made it, I wasn't quite sure if I liked it or not. Do you ever do that? You make something and you have to stare at it for a while to decide if you like it.

Not only was I not sure what I thought about the quilt top, I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it. I couldn't picture adding more to the quilt by quilting on top of the fabric also.



It finally took me moving back to India to decide what I wanted to do with the quilt top. I chose a solid background fabric that went well with the fabrics on the front of the quilt.

I then sent it off to Knot and Thread Design and asked Kaitlyn to figure it out for me. LOL! She is great at deciding how to finish a quilt.

It really wasn't until after she quilted it for me and sent it back that I fell in love with the quilt. She chose a pantograph which mimics the background fabric. It added a softness to the quilt without overpowering it.

About the Old Muscat Souq Pattern

I agree, Old Muscat Souq is a strange name for a quilt pattern. However, I designed this pattern after an ancient market (souq) in Oman. This market was a highlight of the trip. We were able to see more of the culture and old part of the city while visiting the Souq.

I love the star in this quilt. I have seen it so many times while traveling the world that I love to incorporate it in my designs.

The Old Muscat Souq modern quilt pattern is a block based pattern. Each block uses three accent fabrics of different colors plus a background fabric. The pattern comes with two variations.

This quilt would be considered a scrappier version. I used a fat quarter bundle to include a variety of fabrics. You can find the other version of the Old Muscat Souq quilt pattern here. This version uses four fabrics total to create a more modern look.

The pattern has four sizes:

• Baby: 36 in. x 36in.

• Throw: 52 in. x 69 in.

• Twin: 69 in. x 85 in.

• Queen: 102 in. x 118 in.

The Old Muscat Souq is a great pattern for the advanced beginner quilter. No special rulers are needed, just consistent 1/4 inch seams.

 

I have made this pattern several times and each time it comes out unique. You can check those versions out here and here.

It's a versatile pattern which looks great in print or solid fabrics. It's an easy pattern to grab a fat quarter bundle of your favorite fabric designer and get to work.