Search Results for: scrappy heart

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!

I want to share a quilting moment I’m thankful for this year:  my Trinkets from the Beach quilt visited the ocean.  Just typing that makes my heart clench a little in my chest.


Each block in my Trinkets from the Beach Quilt represents a specific memory, image, or tradition from our annual visits to Newport Beach, CA.   My grandpa bought a beach house there when my mom was a little girl, long before Newport Beach was a popular destination.  My mom played at this beach, and then my parents took me and my siblings there, and now my children have been there every summer of their lives.


I’m so grateful we were able to go again this year, in spite of everything.  The house, the sand, the egret I love to watch in the mornings, were all more dear because of this strange year.


As for the quilt, I turned the paper pieced blocks into economy blocks, and arranged the fabrics in diagonal rows.  I only made one of each block and I enlarged the pattern.  The economy block setting allowed me to make a larger quilt without duplicate blocks.  I also wanted to emphasize the blue.


I quilted along the seam lines on my machine, and added big stitch quilting in each trinket block.


These Tula Pink Zuma fabrics make my stomach hurt, they’re so pretty.  Just like the beach.  I couldn’t choose just one, so I made a scrappy binding and it’s perfect.


For the backing I used a Moda bouy print, combined with solids and a Rifle Co stripe. I like the mix.


My grandpa lived in this house for many years.  It’s precious to me, a place I will never tire of.  Taking photos of my quilts in front of it give me hope that someday, when the house isn’t ours anymore, the quilts will help with the ache.  I hope they will keep Grandpa close like the house has.


Taking this pattern, making it in this way, trying to sew my memories, was a creative exercise I loved.  I’m trying to do more storytelling, to put more of ME into my quilts.  It’s exciting to try.


This place has my heart.  And I hope my kids will treasure this quilt.

Frustrated and discouraged, I pulled the first fabric and hastily cut a shape.  A teardrop.  That feels right.  So I cut more, and that felt right too.  Tears adding up, falling softly at first, then faster and harder and darker.  Meet my first coronavirus inspired quilt:  Through tears she saw more clearly.


I needed to make something that reflects the tension, stress, loss, and blessings of this time.  My requirement was that every print be a floral (large scale preferred) with a blue or green background (though a few at the top have white backgrounds).  They’re loosely organized from light at top to dark at the bottom, a cascade of flowers in a sea of blue and green.  I literally ransacked my fabric stash for these prints.  No collection was safe; I cut everything that qualified, and I’m still re-folding and putting fabric away!


My biggest decision concerned the triangles beneath each teardrop.  What color to make them?  Print or solid, light or dark, or scrappy?  I considered cutting a few to audition ideas, and then I saw the red.  Red fabric I bought for a project at a retreat that didn’t happen.  My gut said, “YES” so I started cutting and never looked back.


I LOVE the tension between the bright red solid and the beautiful florals.  It begs the question: which shape is the tear?  Are they tears of red-hot pain or anger?  Or are they thoughtful tears, tears of surrender and beauty?  Can it be both?  Can this time be both beautiful and awful?  The answer is yes.  It can and it is.


We’ve lost things and gained things, individually and collectively.  Some of my tears were chosen on purpose:  a tear on the day my Aunt died of cancer, one for the day my husband lost his job.  A tear for a friend’s devastating diagnosis.  One for other friends who lost parents in this pandemic.  Tears for dreams that are simply gone, tears of uncertainty and stress and fear.  Tears of compassion for suffering and tears of surrender.  And somehow, though I’m seeing through a waterfall, my tears also tell me that in the end, it will be okay.  Thus the name of my quilt:  through tears she saw more clearly.


I look at my quilt top and it feels strange to see my struggle in fabric, when I’m still struggling in real life.  Like maybe I’m telling the story too soon?  But on top of all the other things we’re dealing with, we’re learning to live with a lot more uncertainty.  I suppose it’s one more layer of tension in my quilt – being waist deep in the muddy struggle, trying to secure a pretty outcome.

If you’ve cried any of these tears, my heart reaches out to yours.  You are not alone.  I’m so sorry for your pain, and so hopeful for your eventual happiness.  Sooner, I hope, rather than later.

Jennifer