Quilt Finish – Churn Dash With Love

Here’s a little technicolour dreamboat of a quilt I made while in COVID lockdown earlier this year. During that time, it was all about the need to create something without too much thought. The very act of making–using my hands–gave me control over my anxiety. I could diminish those uncertain feelings by focusing on the colours and shapes before me. I never knew when I started my quilt journey that it would provide such therapeutic properties in times of need.

This pattern comes form Nelly Holmes, (IG: Nelly Holmes Quilts) a fellow Aussie quilter. At the time she asked me to review one of her first pattern instructions. After I had made the first block in unusual tonal colours of grey, khaki and sapphire, it left me scratching my head. I thought, “Can I raid my scrap bins of all my unusual solid scraps and make this work?” Regarding my process, I usually figure out my palette prior to commencing. However, with this, it just felt a like a great non-committal way of using my scraps, playing with out-of-the-box colours, and throwing in some design choices despite using someone else’s pattern.

After making nine, 12″ blocks for a non-designated baby quilt, I thought it needed to be a tad bigger. (#sizequeen) Since I don’t believe in gendered colours, I used them all. (Sidebar: WTF is up with this whole pink for girls and blue for boys situation. Stop doing this! Singular genders don’t get to commandeer whole colour families! Despite the fact that it does nothing to support those people that don’t identify in a binary gender system. Boys can have pink quilts. Girls can have blue ones. Anyone can have any colour in between. Preach.) And as I can see from atop this soap box, my quilt pretty much addresses that last point!

Anyway, to make it bigger, I added a chunky piano keys border all around to flush the quilt out at 44″ square. I also used off cuts from previous quilt backings to create a striped quilt backing for this sucker. I packed it up with the latest package I was sending to Leanne at Mount Vincent Quilts for her longarm quilting services. After we found this bubble panto design, I knew this was the quilt to try it out on. I wouldn’t have thought to quilt it with purple thread, but Leanne went for it with gusto! It’s a great simpatico relationship! I’m happy with how all those circles create a sense of play, and contrast to the sharp lines of the churn dash. Which, by the way, has never been my favourite block, but we’re coming to terms with each other.

After her recent return, I bound it all together with this gorgeous Prussian Blue, including my glitter-flecked binding in some red scraps, and of course my Molli Sparkles care label. Job well done, said me!

Title: Churn Dash With Love
Size: 44″ x 44″
Pattern: Churn Dash With Love by Nelly Holmes
Fabric: Various solids from my scrap bins
Quilting: Long arm quilting, by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: hand stitched with Aurifil 50wt, colour 1158 Medium Grey
Backing: Pieced backing using Kokka Double Gauze, Kona, and Dear Stella scraps
Favourite Part: Creating a baby quilt out of non-traditional colours.