A Quilt with a Special Message / Beauties Pageant 188

This quilt has been on my mind lately. It’s a project, named 47XY+21, that I created back in 2018 to share my parenting journey with the quilting community.

What you’re looking at is an abstract interpretation of my younger son’s karotype (that is, a picture of his chromosomes). My guy has an extra chromosome on the 21st pair, which causes Down syndrome. 

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, which makes it a perfect time to revisit this quilt and the meaning behind it. You can read about this project and my son in my original post from 2018. Spoiler alert: This kiddo is awesome and perfect just the way he is. I can’t imagine life without him or his bonus chromosome.

47XY+21 in the pages of Curated Quilts’ Well Said issue.

 

There are two points, however, that my original post doesn’t make that I’d like to share with you today ...

First, I cannot adequately explain how meaningful the process of creating and sharing this quilt was to me. I was surprised. I am very comfortable with the fact that I’m raising a child with special needs, and I’m happy to talk about him or my life parenting him to anyone who will listen. But to post 47XY+21 online and read people’s responses or to witness attendees of QuiltCon 2019 view it and react to it ... those experiences had a huge impact on me. 

All of this is to say that if you’re considering creating something that is as personal and revealing, go for it. It’s not easy to be that open and honest, but I suspect it will be well worth your time.

Second, the ugliness in this world is at times too much for me to bear. (Can you relate?) I remember not wanting to leave the safety of the maternity ward in the days after my son’s birth because I didn’t know how people would respond to him. Friends in the know warned me that my guy and I would encounter close-minded people in our travels, people who wouldn’t be able to handle his differences. Someone even thought I could lose friends over my son’s diagnosis. These were not pessimistic or unsupportive friends; they were just projecting their experiences onto me and my situation.

And my experience has been the exact opposite. The world has been nothing but gracious to me and my son. I can’t tell you how many random strangers have shown us profound kindness. I am quick to apologize for my son’s social transgressions (and there have been many!), and every person we encounter has met us with understanding and acceptance. 

So I hope this post has brought you a little joy today. I wish you all a wonderful weekend. Thanks for reading!

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Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt / Beauties Pageant 187

When I was designing my latest PDF, the Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt, I photographed the quilt I originally made from the design for the cover and was really pleased with how it turned out. The bright colors of that quilt make for an eye-catching cover. But this pattern includes five different layout options—four of which I had never sewn before!—so I couldn’t help but embark on a new project from the instructions.

And here is the final flimsy: a super-scrappy, two-color Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt. This layout creates a huge star with what looks to me like four photo corners. (And if anyone is going to sew a 56-inch by 64-inch star, it’s going to be me!)

The nexus for the fabric pull was a set of black and white fat eighths that I won through my guild. There was everything from OG Cotton and Steel to Zen Chic to Sarah Jane fabric in it. One of our board members cut the pieces from her rather extensive personal stash. It was an awesome prize, and because I used only the prints that read as all white or all black, supplementing them with my own stash and scraps, I still have a good chunk of the bundle left over. 

It’s going to be a while before I have the bandwidth to quilt this flimsy, but I want to pick the binding and piece the backing before I fold everything up and put it aside for a few months. This black and white quilt needs a little something for the binding—specifically, something that’s not black or white. There are infrequent bits of aqua, orange, avocado, and pink in the scrappy low-volume background, so they’re logical candidates for the binding. My current plan of attack is to go with a bold pink binding and coordinate the backing appropriately.

This is only my second two-color quilt project. (See my first one, a QuiltCon challenge reject, here.) It was fun to sew with these fabrics, and even though I homed in on two colors, there were plenty of fabric decisions to make. Have you made a two-color quilt? I’d love to see the ones you have. Post one or two of them to this week’s linky, even if they are finishes from way back when. : )

The Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt PDF is available exclusively through my Etsy shop. It’s priced at just $3, with proceeds going to support a Down syndrome organization in my area.

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Taffy Quilt Kit / Beauties Pageant 186

I tried something new: I made a quilt from a kit! 

In general, I don’t consider kits very “me.” I enjoy the process of developing a palette and pulling fabric too much to allow a quilt shop to do those steps for me. When I won a Taffy quilt kit in Pure Solids through one of my guild’s monthly raffles, though, it was time to challenge my thinking.

And I was pleasantly surprised. This kit was just what I needed for my May quilt retreat. My in-process projects were not easily picked up and schlepped to Maine for a weekend, so I cut out and organized all the Taffy pieces in advance of the event. After the three days of the retreat, the top was done, as were a few other items from my quilty to-do list.

There’s another selling point for working from a kit on this project. The large throw-size Taffy quilt requires 30 different fabrics in addition to the background. It would have been hard to find this particular spectrum of colors in any one quilt shop, and it would have been nearly impossible to buy the necessary yardage online without ending up with a lot of extra fabric. With the kit, however, I had just enough fabric.

I’m really pleased with how this quilt turned out. The panto—sized to my liking for a less crinkly washed quilt—is subtle and doesn’t detract from the bold design of the quilt top. The binding is a woven fabric that matches one of the mauves in the piecing—it adds texture and interest next to all of those Pure Solids. And the backing, although simple and designed to use up stash, is one of my all-time favorites.

The only decision I would make differently in the future is the batting. The Pure Solids have a fine hand—they’re beautiful, but they’re not a beefy Bella or Kona solid. I think Warm and White would have made that background in Pure Solid Snow shine more brightly than the Hobbs 80/20 does. 

I should note that I encountered some issues with the pattern. I found the 6.5"x 8.5" professionally printed booklet that came with the kit difficult to navigate. If you’re considering making your own Taffy quilt, I’d purchase the PDF; perhaps it’s laid out differently.

Also, the plus blocks should be trimmed to 11.5 inches (not 11 inches, as the pattern states). My blocks came out closer to 11.75 inches, so I adjusted all the sashing measurements to accommodate that. Instead of following the pattern’s instructions for the borders, I found it easier to figure out how I wanted the border blocks to line up with the focal blocks and figured out the math on my own.

Despite those points, Taffy is a beautiful design. If you’re an experienced pattern reader and comfortable tweaking things a bit, you’ll be fine.

What have you been working on? Link up your latest finish in this week’s linky!

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Thimble Blossoms' Sunnyside Quilt and a Giveaway / Beauties Pageant 185

One of my goals this year was to sew through my Bonnie and Camille stash. Most of my B&C fabrics had been set aside for my Gypsy Wife quilt. Once that long-standing WIP was finished, though, I gave myself free rein to sew whatever I wanted with the rest!

First I sewed and quilted my version of Thimble Blossoms’ Rain or Shine pattern. (Thimble Blossoms is the name of Camille Roskelley’s pattern company.) Then I moved on to the Sunnyside pattern, also by Camille, which proved to be a brilliant decision. : )

The heart of each Sunnyside half log cabin is a 5-inch square, so I used my favorite designs from the two charm packs of Vintage Picnic I had on hand. The design permitted me to incorporate a bunch of low-volume charms, which made my stash-busting little heart happy. Too often, low-volumes don’t provide enough contrast with lighter backgrounds, but that was a nonissue with this design. 

In addition to the charm squares, this pattern call for two honey buns, Moda’s name for 1.5-inch strips. I instead culled through my mountainous scrap pile to cut what was required. It was tedious work, but the skinny strips helped me get good mileage from the oddly shaped bits and pieces I had after completing my Gypsy Wife.

Once the top was finished, I dropped it off to my friend Ophelia, who quilted a lovely swirly panto on the quilt. Needless to say, I’ll be keeping this beauty for myself.

A Fabric Giveaway

OK! I’ve mentioned that September would include some giveaways on From Bolt to Beauty. The first one was a free pattern PDF (see last week’s post). It’s going out to newsletter subscribers today free of charge. If you missed out, you can still download the pattern from Etsy for just $3. Part of the proceeds from each sale will go to an organization that supports the Down syndrome community. (If you want to be in the loop for future freebies, sign up for the newsletter here.)

This week I’m giving away the bundle of eight fat quarters—all from Starry by Alexia Marcelle Abegg for Ruby Star Society—pictured below:

You have two opportunities to enter to win this fabric: (1) Upload your link to the Beauties Pageant below (just one link, please) and/or (2) leave a comment on this post about what you’d like to see in a future giveaway (just one comment, please).

This giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4) on Thursday, September 15, 2022. 

IMPORTANT: The winner will be notified via email and has 48 hours to respond before I pick a second name. If you’re a no-reply blogger or comment anonymously, please include your email address in your comment or send it to me at frombolttobeauty (at) gmail (dot) com—otherwise, I have no way to contact you. And if you’re not sure whether you’re a no-reply blogger, send me your email address just in case.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The giveaway is over, and Nancy of Peace and Grace Quilting is the winner!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Free PDF Pattern / Beauties Pageant 184

 

Hello! I hope you had a lovely August. After a few weeks away from my sewing machine, a trip to the beach, and (alas!) a case of Covid, I’ve settled back into my usual routine, working on projects and writing about them.

September and the reopening of school always feel more like the beginning of the year for me—moreso than January 1 does—and I wanted to mark this fresh start with some giveaways, along with updates on recent finishes.

With the first giveaway, everyone is a winner! I’m designing a free PDF for the quilt pictured above (and three other possible layouts from these blocks). This is my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt, and it comes just in time for National Sew a Jelly Roll Day on September 17. 

All that is required to sew this beauty is a jelly roll and 1.75 yards of background fabric. The sample here was sewn with Denyse Schmidt’s Franklin collection, but I’m working on a new version in black and white fabrics. I’m excited about it!

The easiest way to get your copy is to sign up for my newsletter; I’ll send the PDF as an attachment on the September 9 mailing. (After that, it will be posted in my Etsy shop for a nominal fee, with proceeds going to charity.)

The From Bolt to Beauty newsletter is just another way for me to keep in contact with other quilters. It goes out monthly (or at least that’s the plan—I’m trying to get more regular about it!) and includes:

• A recap of blog and Instagram happenings
• The latest FBTB tips and tutorials
• Info on upcoming pattern releases and quilt-alongs
• Special discounts and newsletter-only freebies

I have a few other surprises up my sleeve for September. Swing by next week to learn more.

Until then, please fill us in on what you’ve been working on in the latest Beauties Pageant!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter