Hopeful Homemaker

Meet the Arise Quilt !  Arise is the second pattern in my Resolute Collection of quilt patterns, following the Awake Quilt .  I’m so excited to officially introduce you to this design.  I am a thinker – inclined to think about things for too long instead of diving in.  It’s hard, sometimes, to believe that simply doing small things consistently will yield enough .  For the last 18 months I’ve built my personal goals on the premise that diligence in lots of small things will build the life I want to live.  I’m beginning to find great satisfaction in the systems and routines I’m building.  These thoughts led me to design the Arise quilt.


Arise means “to ascent, mount up, or move to a higher place; to emerge from below the horizon; begin to act; to exert power; to move from a state of inaction.”  It describes my goals well.  Thus, in designing the Arise quilt, I used simple quilt blocks, made again and again, as the foundation of the quilt.

This quilt uses square in a square blocks, otherwise known as economy blocks.  But it comes alive through deliberate fabric and color placement.    And fussy cutting!  Arise offers lots of places to fussy cut those treasured fabrics you’ve been saving.  The sashing serves as the hero of the quilt, creating a secondary block design that keeps the eye.  In this quilt, every piece of fabric is small but mighty, and has an important role in the design composition.

In this version of the quilt I used Tula Pink’s Curiouser and Curiouser fabrics, plus her black and white stripe, combined with solids from my personal stash.  I love the fabulous pink painted rose next to rich, dark green.  I intended to bind the quilt in the black and white stripe, but went with green instead because I wanted more of it!

The quilting is a design called Chancel, a design fitting for a tea party with the queen of hearts.  Once again, Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting did a great job!

The Arise Quilt finishes at approximately 66″ square, and is available in my Etsy shop .  While my girls enjoy snuggling under this beauty, I’m looking forward to the next design.  The Stand Quilt is coming soon!

I’m so grateful God led me to quilting.  Happy sewing to you!

Jennifer

I’m pleased to officially introduce you to a new quilt pattern – my Awake Quilt.  The Awake Quilt is first in a series of quilt patterns, the Resolute Collection.  A simple definition of resolute is “admirably purposeful, determined, unwavering”.  What a great word!  And if you know me well at all, you will know my longtime love for words.  I find myself at an interesting place in life: stages of parenting overlapping one another, requiring more flexibility than ever but also offering unexpected space for personal development.  As I navigate all of it, I’m learning to let go AND hang on.  Resolute is a great word for my striving, so it’s only natural that it merges with my quilting.  And so, the Resolute Collection was born, comprised of quilt patterns whose names are words that are significant to me in my journey.

Therefore, let’s talk about the Awake Quilt.  The stars inside “circles” are the star of the show, but there is no curved piecing in this pattern!  In fact, the Awake Quilt uses the traditional dresden quilt block cleverly to provide both top and bottom borders, as well as the circles around the stars.  You’ll need an 18 degree dresden ruler to make the quilt.  I’m a big fan of sewing from stash (I think most quilters have one) and this came entirely from mine.  I love creating my own personal “collection” for my quilts.

As I was designing the Awake quilt, I kept saying to myself, “Stay awake but keep it simple.”  A few definitions of awake include:  stop sleeping, awake from sleep, bestir, to be invigorated with new life.  My whole goal with this quilt was to stay awake creatively, resist doing the obvious or easy thing, but also avoid over-complicating the design.

The star centers provide fussy-cutting opportunites, and the surrounding blocks allow for bold color play.  This is a fun, dynamic quilt.  You will love making it!

I sent mine to my friend Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting for edge to edge quilting.  She did a beautiful job.  I also chose this lovely, old Alexander Henry floral for the backing.  The blooms are enormous and make me smile!  The binding is scrappy.

The Awake quilt is approximately 60 x 72 inches, and the pattern is available in my Etsy shop .  Next up in the Resolute Collection is the Arise quilt, I hope you’ll take a look!

Happy sewing!

-Jennifer

Confession:  I started another English Paper Piecing project.  I believe this makes 4 EPP projects in motion for me, including mandolin and ice cream soda .  This one is an “all the designers” Lucy Boston block, and it’s large.  By large, I mean 2″ elongated hexagons , and the block is 16.5″ wide at the widest point.

The longer I quilt, the more my eye looks for fussy cutting potential in quilts.  The most fun part of this block was definitely choosing the fabrics and deciding how to cut them.  I regularly set aside prints that would look great like this, and now I have a large stack of them to work with!  I thought about limiting my fabrics to just one designer such as Tula Pink, but I decided to make this my “all the designers” Lucy Boston project.  The fabrics in this block are designed by Joel Dewberry (green), Anna Maria Horner (pink) and Pat Bravo (gold).  Some old, some newer, and they all look fabulous together.

I am slowly improving my EPP skills through constant practice.  Each morning I stitch a few pieces in one of my projects first thing in the morning.  It’s my “wake up” ritual and I enjoy it.

I really love these photos with my favorite old white door as a backdrop.  Last year we had to say goodbye to one of my favorite places in the world – our family beach house.  It provided countless memories and hours at the beach for 4 generations of my mom’s family.  When I made a final trip to help my Dad get the last of everything, we brought this old door back.  It lives just outside my studio, and is a reminder of a place I’ve loved for as long as I can remember.

The sun came out and filtered through the trees as I was taking pictures.  It made me smile, so here’s one last photo of my pretty block:

Happy Sewing, Jennifer