Red Sky at Night Quilt - A Scrappy Haven

I didn't realise just how worried I was about my Red Sky at Night Quilt turning out, until I finished up the quilt top and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'd come up with a way of making a sampler quilt that I found fun and engaging and easy to make progress, and I felt more than a little chuffed with myself. I'd enjoyed picking through the already prepared half square triangles and flying geese to construct my blocks, but the further I got to the finish line, the more I started to worry that it was just going to be a hot, scrappy mess. Would it be too busy? Too much? Should I have chosen white instead of low volume so that there was better contrast between the blocks. Was I being ridiculous, putting out a machine pieced pattern when my whole business was built on English Paper Piecing?

I've experienced this crisis of creativity before, and some quilts have worked and some quilts haven't, and I've been ok. But I really wanted this one to work. It mattered more to me. The hours of work on the pattern, designing the story-filled quilt-along...I was so excited for this whole thing I was creating, so I really, really wanted to love the quilt. 

I finished the blocks, added the sashing, laid it out, and Lola came and plopped herself down on it like she always does, and I felt this huge relief. I loved it! It's not always a given when you try something new. As much as I designed and made it, the finished product often takes on a life of it's own. It become a partnership with the fabric and colours, and you have no idea if the fabric and colours will come through for you the way you hoped. But I loved it, and I was so grateful. 

After a decade of mostly English Paper Piecing, I know that when you finally finish a quilt full of paper pieced blocks, there's still a lot of work to do. Adding joining shapes, stitching the rows, adding the rows together, removing the papers. It's work I don't mind, but I often need to wait until I'm in the mood for it, until I've embraced the pace of it. So it was a real buzz to have this quilt come together so quickly and smoothly once the layout was planned. Long straight lines on the machine are so satisfying, boosted, of course, by the excitement that comes when you know it's turned out like you hoped. 

I love that you can see the pattern of each block, even though they were designed for 2 colours. I love that the overall feel is rich and happy and balanced. I love the centrepiece of the Star of Bethlehem - sampler quilts can feel like they're missing focus, somewhere to rest the eye. I love the way the EPP blocks fit in beautifully. At times I wondered if the change in process from machine piecing to EPP would be weird, but it's worth it. And I love the little pops of fun fussy cutting. Can you find the teapot? And the butterflies? And the little kid in the tree? Oh, and that strawberry in the checkerboard block below!

The Red Sky at Night Pattern has 3 different layouts - this combined machine pieced and EPP one, a machine only one, and an EPP only one. The machine pieced layout has 49 blocks, but the combined only needs 48 machine pieced blocks (in addition to the EPP blocks). I decided to use that spare block for the back, and using one of the blocks in the quilt as inspiration, made strips and corner squares to create a woven pattern. 

I decided to hand-quilt this one, as I often do with queen sized quilts. I prefer to wrangle a big quilt on my lap than through my machine. I quilted along all the sashing lines and then lightly inside each block, finding a simple diamond or square or star to shadow. It was lovely spending that extra time with the colours and shapes after speeding through finishing the quilt top!

I bound the quilt with Anna Maria Horner's Cathedral print from her love always collection. I love that it's mostly blue - that was what I wanted to draw out from the quilt - but also has pops of green and pink. 

The quilt finishes at approximately 80" square, just shy of what most would make for a queen bed. I considered adding a few more rounds of 1" sashing, but liked the look of it finished as is. And while another few inches might have it drape down past the mattress, I've been happy with the fit of in on our bed. Doesn't it go beautifully with our green sideboard? I've often tended towards minimalist autumn vibes for my bedroom, but this quilt is changing my mind. 

Even though I mostly tend towards simple and certain in my quilt making, I'm glad I took on something big and different and risky. The feeling of accomplishment is so much bigger, and my love for the quilt, and for myself for making it, is so much deeper. This quilt, made of all my favourite scraps and stash, is SO ME. And, that makes me proud. 

I would love for you to make this quilt from your favourites, too. I'd love for you to feel the easy rhythm of making the units in sensible batches, to enjoy playing with colour and print as you piece the blocks together, and to lay it out and think, YES! It worked! Join me as I walk you through the pattern, step by step, for a special quilt-along starting Sept 13!