Awake Quilt – 1st Pattern in Resolute Collection

Quilting and Sewing

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

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“All the Designers” Lucy Boston – a large EPP block

Quilting and Sewing

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

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A Wasted Season Redeemed {Easter Thoughts}

Easter, Musings on Life and Beauty

You could argue that Utah’s weather cycled through all four seasons in a week, including two rounds of snow and freezing temperatures.  We need the moisture desperately, but the timing…. is hard.  A week ago I took a little walk around my beloved cherry tree to see the buds beginning to bloom.  But now, when we should have a show of lovely white blossoms, the tree already looks brown.  A wasted season, it seems.

I was sick last week.  A wasted week.

But today is Easter and we’re back to spring, so with the sun shining and blue skies overhead I wandered outside to see what survived the cold.  My peonies are coming in well, most of the tulips survived.  My honeysuckle looks dead, and the weeds are thriving as usual.  Honestly, my yard suffers from neglect and dearly needs my attention.  A wasted yard, perhaps.  But while my walk prompted plenty of guilt, I also had to admit that there are some beautiful things happening there.  Beauty I don’t deserve, but which is there for my enjoyment.  A gift.

I had the thought that I should return to the cherry tree in spite of its color.  To my surprise, a sound I’ve not heard for years greeted me:  the hum of hundreds of bees.

In spite of brown blossoms that froze, others had boomed after the storm.  And where the blossoms seemed lost, the bees were at work.  Undeterred by the wilting brown, they even seemed to prefer the “wasted” blooms over the fresh white ones.

I circled the tree with tears in my eyes.  My own little Easter miracle, it seems, with a beautiful lesson for me: a wasted season redeemed.  The scriptures teach that all things testify of Christ.  Today I witnessed that testimony in the form of bees and cherry blossoms.  Because of Him, our brown, frozen, spent blossoms can still bring fruit.

So many parts of my life are barren of the fruit I expected years ago.  Yet, haply, looking back today, I see Jesus Christ at work.  I see brown useless blossoms that have yielded good things:  humility, compassion, patience, and faith.  I am better for it.  The fruit has been years in coming, and even now isn’t ready to harvest.  But my wasted season is being redeemed.

This is my Easter witness to you:  whatever is broken, frozen, wasted in your life can be healed and used for good through Jesus Christ.  Just as the bees find my brown blossoms worth pollinating, so He finds you worth saving.  Such a lovely message, delivered by bees and cherry blossoms.

Happy Easter!

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