Category: Quilting and Sewing

Well, life is certainly interesting and it has a way of sending us on unexpected detours.  I didn’t mean to step away at all, let alone for over a month.  And to keep it even more curious, here I am today with a quilt I should have shared long ago.  It’s my Secret Garden Quilt in bright colors, mostly Art Gallery Fabrics.  I made my original version in rich jewel tones.  This one is bright and fresh with clear colors throughout.

The Secret Garden quilt is ideal for using large scale prints, LOTS of colors, and juicy florals.  It requires the Jaybird Quilts Hex N More ruler to cut the jewel shapes and triangles, and is incredibly fun to make.  Kind of a “sew outside the block” experience, and one that’s fun to design as you go.  No Y-seams.  Lots of fun.

In fact, most of the fabrics I used here, I purchased simply because I liked them.  I had no idea what I would do with them.  The fun thing is that there are so many little spaces to drop more color and tie things together, that you can use pretty much anything in this quilt and it will come together.  It’s a great exercise in color theory.  Maybe that’s why I love it so much.

I also love the way my eye travels, lingers, and explores this quilt.  It’s definitely not one you can take in at a glance.

I had it quilted in a floral edge to edge pattern that suits the quilt well.

This Secret Garden Quilt in bright colors deserved an equally bright backing, so I chose two favorites.  The striped floral, and the birds in trees.

And of course, a bright pink binding was in order.  Why not?  I’ve definitely been into red or pink bindings for a while now.  I like their bold presence.  This quilt deserved no less.

Just looking at these photos makes my fingers itch to pull fabric for another.  Time to open the pattern and get started!

When I wrote my Serve quilt pattern , it occurred to me that not everyone would want to make a 72″ square quilt , so I also made a version that is two-thirds the size.  This is my Serve Quilt 48″ top, and I’m calling it “Show Up”.

This quilt top is entirely from my stash, and while I LOVED the rich, dark blue, I didn’t have enough of it, so I started adding in pieces of another, not as dark, blue for the background.  Kind of like life.  We use what we have, give what we can.  And you know what?  I LOVE this little quilt top!  I love the scrappy, two color background and the way it makes me look a little longer.

In that same spirit, I decided to play with the red solid also.  The little print I used as the second star color has both red and pink in it, so I decided to sprinkle pink throughout the large star.

I love the bluish-gray I used for the circle of outer stars, but when I tried to use those fabrics for the center star, they fell flat.  It lacked interest.  I had actually been eyeing this vivid green throughout my sewing sessions, so I gave it a try.  It’s perfect.

This unintimidating version – a Serve quilt 48″ quilt top – was a fun, quick sewing project.  It would make a great toddler quilt or would also look great on a wall.  In my case, I want to play with adding other elements to this one as borders, just for fun.  I’m brainstorming what I might want to do, especially since adding pinks, the green, and a second blue gives me room to expand the color scheme of this quilt.  Oh, to have more time to sew without deadlines!  Hopefully soon.

Happy sewing!

Jennifer

Awake , Arise , Stand , Listen.
What’s next?  Here is my Serve Quilt, the 5th pattern in my Resolute collection.  As I’ve said previously, each pattern was designed based on a single word.  I chose them for their value in my personal life AND in my creative life.  When I first made my list of words, I had no idea what kinds of quilts would follow.  All I knew was that it would challenge me and also be a very “me” sort of project.  Now here I am, at the end of the list.  So let’s talk about the Serve Quilt pattern!

Serve is primarily a half rectangle triangle (HRT) quilt pattern.  I have grown to love the HRT block so it was no surprise I began sketching with them.  I made a video/tutorial post for half rectangle triangles to assist you in making them.  It’s available here .  The HRT blocks in the Serve quilt create a large 8 pointed star, with a smaller center star at the heart.  There are 8 stars orbiting the main star.

My reasoning?  Let me quote from the pattern introduction:  “I feel like everything we experience and learn in life can be used to serve others. One definition of ‘serve’ is ‘to be sufficient for a purpose’. I like that. As I pondered and sketched, this star took shape. It’s big and bold, and it also has an orbit of smaller stars surrounding it. To me, it feels like showing up in our biggest, best, most sincere and authentic ways to serve others, even when things are spinning around us. I want to do more good in my sphere of influence. This design is how I say it in fabric.”

The quilt measures 72″ square, but it also includes measurements for a smaller, 48″ square version.  This original version is all made with solids, and I really love it, but I’ve also made a second, colorful version.  I think a scrappy version would be interesting to make.  So many options with this bold pattern !

I love buying cool fabric on clearance and saving the yardage for a quilt back down the road.  This amazing bird design by Thomas Paul was the perfect thing for the Serve quilt.

A blizzard rages outside as I type this.  I wish I could curl up with a book under this quilt today, but life has other plans.  I get to go serve!  I’m a volunteer in a place that’s dear to me, and where the weather changes nothing, so it’s out into the snow I go!  I hope you’re warm and safe, and hopefully doing something creative today.  Happy sewing!