Quilt Finish – Liberty Lanterns

As I was finishing the binding on this quilt, I was left with a feeling of emptiness. That seems to happen to some extent with every project. I mean, I work my fingers off just clawing out time just to sew and hopefully finish projects. I won’t even talk about my nimble fingers after hand stitching that binding down! (But I will say that vodka makes a wonderful pain killer!) This emptiness though seemed to stem from the lack of a recipient for this quilt. The design and production had literally taken years, but I persisted because of the quilt, not because of a timeline. So after it was all sewn up, I contemplated who really deserved this quilt. 

Reflecting on why I originally made this quilt, I found that its essence was all about those people who shine lights in dark places. Sometimes that is intentional, and sometimes that spark just lives naturally within someone. These lanterns are like that, strung along where needed, or just hung up for some extra pizzazz on the lanai. I’m sure we’ve all been in that situation, where you didn’t even realise you were in a dark place? Then someone just appears–scheduled or not–to show you how much brighter things can be. Well, as soon as I let that ruminate for a hot minute, I knew exactly who this quilt was for.

You see, Mr. Sparkles and I share a general practitioner doctor, who has just been there for us every step of the way. Mr. Sparkles and I are both going through a war zone at the moment, but our doctor has been guiding us through it all. She’s always available to take care of our physical, and emotional well-being, providing genuine holistic care. I mean, if that type of behaviour doesn’t deserve a quilt, I don’t know what does! #QuiltsForDoctors should totally be a thing.

I chose to use Liberty fabrics because: A. Why not? B. They have high saturation with sharp contrast. C. It seemed subversive to foundation paper piece with them. D. They are “light”-weight. E. I hadn’t used any of my collection in any quilts yet! With all that mounting Bill Withers-esque “Oh you just keep on using me until you use me up,” suggestions, that’s exactly what I did. There were no plans for how this quilt would turn out, it was just me, my Liberty, and making lanterns.

This lantern is one of my favourites–look at that riot of colour! For anyone that says Liberty is all flowers, doilies and delicacies, think again! This beauty could walk on stage at Woodstock, flash her bits, and get a roaring field of applause. I bet some of you readers have a few stories to tell about flashing your bits at Woodstock! Come on now, don’t be shy! As for the paper-pieced lantern pattern? Well it’s a freebie from Quilters Cache! There are heaps of quilt blocks there, so if you’re looking for some inspiration, it’s a great place to start!

The quilt would be amiss if it didn’t include my signature glitter-flecked binding. And while we’re here, let’s talk about that binding fabric. You see, both the black and gold binding fabric and the red-orange textured fabric came from a dear friend Gabrielle. It was near the beginning of my quilting journey–we’re talking July 2013 for Sunday Stash #32–whereby she found these random bits and donated them to me. I would never buy fabrics like these, and Lourdes knows they sat in my stash for a good five years. But this is living fabric proof that you can always find a way to YES with your fabric stash.

I showed much of the construction process for this quilt on Instagram, using the hashtag #LibertyLanterns. You can see the individual blocks on my design wall there, and how I sized it up to an eventual 56″ x 75″. When it was time for the quilting, I reached out to my friend and frequent collaborator, Jane “QuiltJane” Davidson. I told her I wanted something windy to give the lanterns even more movement. I’m pretty sure she couldn’t have picked a better panto! For my part, I used an Aurifil 12 wt floss in Dove 2600 to quilt the string the lanterns hang from. This was my first time using AuriFloss thread, and it glided through my Juki machine without a single problem! I normally use 50 wt thread in top and bottom for piecing, so in this instance, I swapped out the bobbin to a 40 wt to better balance the AuriFloss. This was another new-to-me technique that I couldn’t be happier with!

Just one more thing while I’ve got you: How beautiful is this backing fabric that I got a few years ago when I visited Grandma Sparkles in Alabama (Sunday Stash #217)? It’s painterly, luminescent and picks up all the colours of the lanterns from the front. There’s even a seam that you wouldn’t notice upon first inspection. Well, my doctor might, she’s pretty good with inspecting the details!

This quilt was my thank you to my doctor, but it was also a wonderful introduction to using Liberty fabrics, stashed fabrics, and new quilting processes. While I’ve since started a more traditional project using Liberty fabrics, this one will always be my first. When I gave this to my doctor, she was super thankful, but it was nothing to how thankful we are to have her light in our lives. So if you’re sitting around wondering who deserves a good quilt, look for those people that are literally giving you life with their light.