The Making of a Lion Quilt

Brady turns 18 this summer (how is that remotely possible?) and so I’m making him a lion quilt as he is a Leo.

This is Lion, a paper-pieced pattern by Tartan Kiwi Designs. I bought it ten(!) years ago, knowing I’d make it one day for Brady. Well, that ‘one day’ has arrived. It is a huge block, the biggest one I’ve ever paper-pieced, at 24” finished. The cows quilt blocks were 12”.

It is a great pattern, one which I did using JoAnn (Canuck Quilter Designs) freezer paper method where you do not sew through the paper. You can do this with regular paper, which I did for several of the sections, just using a glue stick to hold down the pieces. I was very glad I figured out a template method using the paper-pieced block parts as the guide. I discussed this method in the paper-pieced tips post for my current quilt along. It saves a lot of waste and aggravation when there are all these weird angles. 

Here are the stages it went through. There are eight sections.

My only complaint is that the lion is not centred, something I did not even realize until I joined the two haves together along the centre seam. So, because I intend to have this as the centre of Brady’s quilt, and build around it, I knew I had to fix that.

Into EQ8 I went. I added a 2” finished strip along the right side which made the block 26 ½" wide. Then I added a 1” finished strip to the top and bottom, bringing the block to 26 ½” square.

At present I have added another frame in navy, and Evening Star blocks floating around with lion claw blocks in the four corners. Yes, the block is known as bear paw but lion’s paws have four toes too! I’d hoped to take the quilt with me when I go out for his grade 12 graduation next month, but that is doubtful at this point. However, as we all know, I work well under pressure.

I had a lovely review from an Etsy customer in Calgary who bought one of my makeup bags a few weeks ago, a forest green one (that colour is actually quite popular) who said she was so pleased it made her want to order another, so when I messaged her to thank her, I let her know that I would happily make a custom one for her anytime. Well she said yes please! Her request was forest: trees, maybe some forest animals, rocks, greens, a cosy, homey feeling. I gathered a ton (like 40-odd) fabrics and let her pic 18, but I also came across the leftover bits of summer nights and northern lights by Holly Taylor for Moda. I’d used a few of the forest/lake/mountain vignettes on the back of my cousin Val’s Jasper quilt. One was the perfect size for one side of the bag, and so I asked if she’d like to do that and she was really excited to use it.

Side 2

She picked this green plaid for the lining. I had just enough with one square left which went on the bottom for the bag base. She said how much she loves the zipper and pull, and of course I had to say well, it’s a Canadian company! Zipper Valley.(no affiliation, just a great company with excellent products)

So that’s what I’ve been up to, other than finishing two quilt tops, one of which is another version of Lyra. You won’t see it until close to the parade as I’ll post it when it's quilted. The other flimsy just needs the border sewing onto it, the second making of Circadian Rhythm. 

I have received photos of two Lyra quilt tops which I am sharing.

This first one is from Susan in Australia. She has participated in almost all of my ten QALs. Because they’re selling their house, she doubts she’ll have it quilted for the parade as her longarm is packed up.

So very pretty and bright and just plain happy!

The next one is made by one of my yoga students, Connie. She participated in last year’s QAL as well. She plans to have it finished for the parade on June 15, but I can’t resist showing it here. In Connie’s words, it’s “pretty bold”, but I think it’s wonderful and it just glows.

Remember that finished tops are preferred, but flimsies are totally fine for the final parade on June 15!