isleta quilt DIY

here are the details of the bedding i showed you last week for our master bedroom re-do.

i created this quilt out of a love for Anthropologie's Isleta bedding which is beyond amazing,

but at $468 for the quilt and $148 per pillow sham, i figured i may as well give it a try myself.

we had a hand-me-down quilt and sham set that is just fine, but TAN! holy moses, so much tan in this world. so i just flipped it over to reveal a nice clean off-white quilt.

then i put it on our bed to start taping it off. since i was sort of flying by the seat, i wanted to be able to see how the pattern would actually look on the bed. it's not easy this way, in fact i was working up a sweat taping those middle parts, but sweat is good.

also helpful was drawing out my pattern on a piece of paper beforehand. i used different color markers to show the different colors i would use and it also helped keep my head in the game when i was painting too.

supplies : painter's tape, foam paint brush, scissors, acrylic paint & a ruler.

i was vaguely precise with taping. the triangles were mostly equilateral so i just ripped off three of the same size pieces to make those. 

the center middle triangles were, i suppose, isosceles but i failed geometry, so i eyeballed it.

the trickiest part of the taping were these stacked triangles. they needed to be connected so the tape coudn't be in the way. so i taped it as needed and cut out the parts i didn't need. it seemed to be easiest!

 after it was all taped off i dragged it into our entry room to paint it. i had serious anxiety during this whole process. taping off is such a crap shoot and i worried that it would look just awful once i peeled it off. 

 gratefully, it looked crisp and clean. i may have done the running man with a couple of fist pumps at this point. 

 as for the pillow shams, i had a hell of a time with them. i called every big box store and every home store in utah county looking for off-white pillow shams. standard! european! i don't care!

 most didn't have them, but macy's did at $40 a piece. 
siri, hang up on these fools.

anyway, the next step was the TJ Maxx-type stores, but finding two shams that matched went over as well as a pregnant pole vaulter. finally, Tuesday Morning pulled through with this aqua set $5.99 each!

while they don't match ... just go with it. 

i taped off some triangles to add some continunity.

 and then added the gold striping later, when i decided i still hated them.

 a couple other tips for any crazies looking to paint their own quilt. the acrylic paint dries hard, so keep that in mind - i tried to keep the paint away from the areas i would be laying my face, or arms.

 also after pulling the tape off i realized how skinny the lines ended up being. while it was taped it looked bold and the lines looked larger, but of course after removal they're quite a bit smaller. duh, yes. but, maybe a good tip would be to tape a little bigger than your gut instinct.

there you have it. besides the sham sham (ba doom boom ching.) i did this in a nap's time.