Here is my quilt for Project Quilting 17.3 Year of the Horse. This was a quilt that got finished and then linked up with 11 minutes to spare. I work well under pressure, but I don't like cutting it that fine! I'd like to say that I rushed home after teaching yoga Sunday morning and got straight to work making the binding and applying it, as that was all that was left when I had to stop at 10:30 Saturday evening. However, I had to make a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some necessary items, and then take Rufus for a walk, and then finally, I got to work. Could I have waited for the groceries and Rufus's walk? Probably, but in this never-ending cold, I didn't want to go out more than once, and dogs do like their routines.
Let me walk you through this quilt's birth. Some of these photos were on Instagram over the week, but I can explain better here. I started by looking in EQ8 for anything with horse names or horse-related words like running, galloping, jumping, etc. When I didn't find anything, I went to quilterscache where I eventually came upon two possible blocks, choosing Mare's Nest.
It is a 15" block so that was good because I could make four, add a border and have a baby quilt or take-to-yoga-class quilt. I went to EQ8 and looked for something similar in their Five-Patch category. That way I would only have to move a few lines around. Well, guess what one is very similar? Bird's Nest! I think that Mare's Nest is a variation on it though it's not marked as original. Bird's Nest comes in two colourways, so I started with the blue one, as that was in line with the fat quarter bundle I'd thought to use.
I picked a few lines and voilà! Mare's Nest was born, though à la Sandra.
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| Bird's Nest |
You will notice it is not the same as the one in Quilter's Cache. The asymmetry of that one bothered me, especially the centre, where it was sort of a star? So I flipped some of the stretched hexagon shapes and made it one. Because it was looking too blue, I made another iteration with the centre star peach, which meant I could use that fat quarter.
Here are the fat quarters that I wanted to work with. I was given a bundle of eight as a thank you for participating in Hands2Help when Mari hosted it for Sarah a few years ago, Of the three not shown here, I ended up using two in the final quilt. They are all Art Gallery Fabrics, solids and with a few prints from Maureen Cracknell's Nightfall line. I did a quick search but couldn't discover whose line is the bees print. Let me know in the comments if you recognize it.
I fussy-cut the bees fabric for the squares, but didn't worry for the triangles because of minimal fabric. Once I stepped back from the block, I knew that I wanted to be purposeful in orienting the bees, especially where they came together in the centre, so I realized that I would have to build the other three blocks on the design wall in order to get it right.
I then went to the quilt design section of the EQ project notebook and came up with this four-block design.
This was before I'd re-coloured the centre star. Rotating the blocks in the top right and bottom left to created a secondary design. I liked it, though the hexagonal shapes were overpowering, despite reminding me of a part of the harness my Uncle Bob's team of Percherons wore.
This second and final design came about when I realized I didn't have enough of the navy FQ for the hexagonal shapes, but the bundle did include another solid that was a shade darker than the turquoise background the bees are on. Done. I knew I'd need to find something in my stash that could work for the four borders because there wouldn't be enough of the white FQ. I made the first block to test construction method and appearance.
The bees in the centre are flying in a clockwise circle, and those in the four corners are as well! I really had to get creative with several of the fabrics when it came to stretching them to get enough patches. There wasn't enough of the floral, so instead of cutting the HSTs at 6 ⅞" as I did the first four, I used a 6 ½" template to cut the rest, even cutting the last few with their long base on the straight of grain with the right angle sides on the bias, and piecing the corner point of one of them! After I'd cut a bunch of 2 ½" squares of the background white fabric and made the hexagonal navy blue patches using the corner square method, I realized that was wasting precious fabric, so I also used a 2 ½" HST template there. I even pieced a narrow strip of remaining fabric to get the 2 ½" width to eke out a few more HSTs! Then I went on the hunt through my stash to find something similar that would work because I still didn't have enough; I was about seven or eight triangles short if I recall. A Lizzy House white with random soft pastel stars in blues, pinks and a few gold would do.
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| Centre complete. Now for the borders... |
I auditioned three border fabrics, two of them batiks, and one an AGF background that has light beige shapes in it. Because there was no light beige in the quilt, I eliminated the AGF one, and settled on the batik on the right. What I love about using the styrofoam panels for my design wall is that I can pin into it. That is two metres of batik on the right, rolled up and pinned onto the wall, and .3 metre on the right and bottom!
Quilt centre complete. The nicest surprise was that the batik I chose has floral shapes in the chop; I had seen the leaves but didn't realize until I was cutting the four strips that there were also flowers.
Picking a backing took longer than making it. I had four that I loved, all of which would have worked wonderfully, but I eliminated each one for various reasons. I had a nice piece of leftover Hobbs wool batting, so once I stitched on the cloth label, I loaded it and off I went with about 24 hours left to the deadline!
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| The soft grey-blue batik works beautifully with the blue in the floral print. |
I didn't take any pictures of the quilting process, but suffice it to say that I knew immediately that I'd do the double straight lines, as I really like that look. I used the centre horizontal seam to travel, quilting the lines in the top half, and then rolling it along to do those in the bottom half. After I'd started, I thought I should've loaded it sideways so I could do them in one fell swoop. However, Avril has been acting up a bit on the right to left straight (backwards) stitching, though she's been much improved... It was what it was. I must mention that I pressed the seams open where the blocks join and that leaves no ditch in which to stitch or travel, something I hadn't anticipated doing when I made the top. So the travelling is more obvious than it would be were those pressed to one side as I prefer to do. There was a fair amount of bulk where the hexagonal shapes come together, so that is why I pressed open. Late Saturday night (10:30 to be exact) I took it off Avril, squared it up and left it to be bound on Sunday morning, knowing it would be a bit stressful as noted in the opening paragraph! But I did it.
This is the other FQ in that bundle for the binding. It's a bit of an odd print, not suitable for patchwork really imho, and phew, I had enough for eight 2 ¼" strips for an interesting binding!
The backing that won out is another AGF fabric.
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| Yikes! I put the label 3 ½" from the bottom raw edge of the backing, but I guess I loaded the quilt top closer to the top edge than planned... |
It's not quite the greyed blue of the front but I loved the navy and peach and white in it, and the use of AGF. I used this as part of the backing for Oh! the Places You'll Go! I still have about a half yard left.
I'm so pleased I got it done. Now, what do bees have to do with horses or the Year of the Horse? Well, the original block that inspired my Sandra's variation is named Mare's Nest. However, we could bounce off, in Trish's words, "the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future." It goes without saying that we are living in a time of monumental, rapid change and upheaval, dark times with the rise of the far right, with fascism rearing its ugly head, (though yay for the election results in Portugal). Bees symbolize community, and finding community in these times is so important: like-minded souls who bolster one's spirits, who encourage each other, and who find ways to come together for the common good. Common good. So all benefit, not a privileged few. And look what bees create! Gorgeous life-giving honey. Think of the critical part they play in pollination, and thus in our survival. Think what humans can create if we emulated bees. I said Sunday morning at the end of my yoga class, as I often do, to hold onto this feeling of peace and calm and take it with you into your corner of the world, but I added, "Just think if those in power could go forth in this spirit."
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| Looking much less wavy! |
I had thought of calling it The Bee's Knees, but I prefer simply Bees because of the symbolism. I am so pleased to have used up almost entirely seven fat quarters and a little more than a yard of stash fabric!
Quilt Stats:
Size: 35 ½" square
Pattern: based on Mare's Nest, my own version and design
Fabric: Art Gallery Fabrics, a bit of Constellations by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics, and an unknown batik
Fabric: Art Gallery Fabrics, a bit of Constellations by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics, and an unknown batik
Batting: Hobbs 100% wool
Backing: Meadow by Leah Duncan for Art Gallery Fabrics
Quilted: on Avril, 24 327 stitches
Threads: pieced on my 1947 Featherweight with Aurifil 2600 Dove; quilted with Aurifil 2600; 100% rayon by Floriani in the bobbin. (I specify the year of my Featherweight, since I own two, a 1947 and a 1951.)
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