This quilt is a long time coming, as in years…
Alexander Henry’s Merry Moderns fabric was THE Christmas quilt fabric for me. I just fell hard for it the minute I saw it.
The fabric seemed a perfect merge for an improvisational technique I’d been brainstorming about. A block that was a faster way to produce ‘crazy pieced’ looking fabric. So I started playing with the block construction concept that became what I now call the Split Personality Quilt Block. The method quickly produces multiple blocks allowing you instant playtime with it in endless design concepts.
Fabrics from the stash that would coordinate with a Christmas theme were pulled, auditioned and sewn. Some favorites were eaten up in the process.
And so, all these happy fabrics have been living together as blocks for a few years, waiting for the perfect pattern to show itself.
My friend Laurel showed up at an open studio to finish up an Arkansas Crossroads quilt. I instantly envisioned my blocks in that design and the production began…last year;)
The essex linen in a cross weave black stabilized the scrappiness.
Merging traditional quilt designs with improvisational techniques has really become where my process leads me. I love the secondary designs traditional set blocks create.
When it came to quilting I lived and breathed this quilt for days. For once I didn’t overthink it and went with straight lines that ran off the edge and echoed the ‘Xs’ the secondary design created.
I dreaded the thought that I’d have to add another horizontal and vertical line because my body was done with quilting, but in the end I dismissed the addition. It has the perfect drape and isn’t over quilted into the luscious feel of cardboard.
Here’s a peek at the back. Leftovers and flannel of course.
The binding is the small scale print in the Merry Moderns line. It worked out that some faces landed on the front and back of the quilt’s edge.
You can see more designs and concepts with this block in my Instagram feed and I’ve added this block onto my January calendar as a daytime, nighttime and weekend workshop.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and then of course there is spring!
Happy Happy Peeps;)
