The Story Behind the Quilt
For this quilt design I was inspired by the beauty of a hand stitched vintage quilt. It was made up of tiny squares and hand quilted to perfection. I desperately wanted to become the owner of that quilt, but it was not meant to be 🙁
Rather than dwell on what I couldn’t have, I found myself grateful for the inspiration and the ability to make something similar.
While sketching the design in a notebook, I couldn’t help but see the correlation between everyday life and the emerging pattern. Our lives are made up of many individual, perhaps even seemingly insignificant small pieces, and yet together those pieces become an extraordinary mosaic.
There are connecting threads that tie each story together. There are major people, places and things that give our lives focus, and there are supporting roles and pieces too.
As I placed each small square into position (on to fusible interfacing – discussed below), I chose to remind myself of one simple blessing that I was grateful for.
As the fabric I had chosen to work with was Christmas themed, it was a nice way to bring some seasonal perspective and gratitude to each day as I stitched the pieces together.
To my surprise, counting my blessings was easier than I imagined. That in itself made me appreciate how blessed I am. Recognising all the important through-lines in my life was a great way to refill my own emotional well and appreciate the significance of so many small everyday things that bring me joy.
And so, the Count Your Blessings quilt emerged through the lens of a grateful heart, and like all quilts – became so much more than fabric and thread!
Construction Note: Using Fusible Grid Interfacing
This quilt looks like it might be time consuming to piece, but it can be constructed with fusible grid interfacing which speeds up the the piecing process.
When using this type of interfacing method, one of my favourite things, besides the speed, is the ability to play around with the placement of each square in order to achieve a successful ‘not so random‘ random layout ;).
Ensuring the colours and values of the fabrics will be dispersed evenly throughout the block is so much easier when you can see what it will look like ahead of time, and there is no chance of accidentally moving pieces as you stitch.
Not that working with the interfacing was entirely simple – there is definitely a technique involved that needs to be mastered in order to achieve accurate sized blocks.
You can see more about my experience working with the interfacing on my Highlights reel on Instagram.
A Quilt for all Seasons
I loved working with the Swell Christmas collection by Urban Chiks for my subtle Christmas version of this pattern. And since the fabric collection has a small number of prints, I threw in a handful of scraps to make the blocks even more interesting and a little quirky, which seemed perfect for the Christmas theme.
For my red, white and blue patriotic version I used the Sweet Tea collection by Sweetwater alongside the Portsmouth collection by Minick and Simpson. At first, you might not think that these designers would play nice together, but they do – which is a good reminder to mix things up every now and then, and experiment with colour and pattern for unexpected and surprisingly delightful outcomes.
The Count Your Blessings quilt seems to me to be the perfect pattern for all of your favorite seasonal quilt making adventures. I can’t stop thinking about a black and orange classic Fig Tree Halloween version too – Swoon!!
The Count Your Blessing PDF Quilt Pattern is Available Now
- You can purchase and download it immediately here .
- And for this week only it’s available for $10AUD (approx $7US).
Please note if you live outside Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the US, or if for some reason you can not purchase the pattern directly from this website, you can purchase it here.
Thank you to everyone who has purchased and who will purchase an Aqua Paisley Studio pattern – I count each of you as one of my blessings!
Happy sewing friends – may your blessings be numerous today and always! Samantha – xx
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