For the quilt show that was taking place during the 25th anniversary of my local quilt group, we were given some white fabric with a silvery sheen and told that the block had to be divisible into 25 squares. There was also a maximum size limit for the quilt.
Traditional quilt blocks are often divisible into smaller units, such as a four patch or a nine patch. I went looking for a block that was divisible by 25 and found a few options.
This was really early in my quilting journey. I wasn’t sure how complicated I could make it and still have it look good. I had originally thought to do a simple quilt with a double border. Here was my initial sketch.
Since our guild had recently had a speaker (unfortunately, my notes do not have her name) who had talked about changing blocks from traditional squares to diamond shapes, I decided to play with that option as well.
The silvery white fabric made me think of snow. I thought I might try to make a snowflake by choosing my color placement carefully. I chose the block named goose tracks to alter to a diamond shape.
A traditional block to a diamond
This is how it looks when it is made in a traditional design. You might be wondering how it can be divided in to 25 pieces, so here is the same picture with lines drawn to show the divisions. (It isn’t perfectly even sized squares, but it could be drawn that way). This image is from Electric Quilt (EQ). See more about Electric Quilt below.
Drawing the design
I used some drafting paper to layout the design as a diamond and then used carbon paper (I think I just dated myself) to make several copies so that I could color it to see how it looked.
I dug through my stash of fabrics and pulled those that fit the snow theme. Once I had made my selection, I figured out how to place the fabrics and opted to use paper piecing to ensure that the corners all lined up to get the effect I wanted. In paper piecing, you actually sew the fabric to the paper following the lines on the paper then remove the paper. It is a very precise way of making sharp corners and angles in a quilt design.
This entailed drafting the separate sections onto paper, then making copies of each section for each of the six blocks. If you ever try this technique, make sure you make more than enough copies for the blocks you are making. Different copy machines and printers may slightly change the size of the printout.
Putting it together
I sewed the section of the center, then had to figure out how to fit the larger triangle in and try to make the quilt as flat as I could. Since I had done very little quilting and was making it up as I went, it took me a while to get it close to correct. It doesn’t lay completely flat.
Then came figuring out the borders. I wanted to use flying geese in the border and had to work out how many, what size, and how to transition around the corners. I ended up placing a small diamond in the center of each side and a wedge at each corner.
Quilting
The last part was quilting. I knew I could just stitch around the pieces in the center and the border, but I needed to find a design to fill the larger empty triangular spaces. After drafting a few ideas, I discussed options with Walt (who often acts as my muse on projects) and decided on a curved design where each half could be quilted with a single line of stitching. I used a stitch pattern on my sewing machine that mimicked hand quilting, so that was fun too. It uses clear monofilament thread in the top and a colored thread in the bobbin. Every other stitch, it pulls the thread up from the bobbin to the top of the quilt.
Snow Goose was a fun project that stretched my skills and taught me a lot about designing a quilt. Many of the quilts I work on now have more of the design planned in advance, but I am open to changing things as the quilt comes together. Snow goose taught me to listen to what the quilt was telling me.
Electric Quilt – design software
Electric Quilt is a design software for quilters. I have had it for a number of years and have upgraded the software several times. It has a large library of blocks, quilting designs, and fabric options pre-loaded. You can add more with add-ons, including recent fabrics, famous designers, and printable fabrics.
Learn more about Electric Quilt here.
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