Gold Dust

Ya know that niggling feeling that occurs when you have thirty-seven other works-in-progress on the go? All you wanna do is finish what’s in front of you. But then there’s that little itch. It starts off small, tiny-tiny, and you know you need to look away, ignore that mutha. Then wham! Your defences are down, you turn your pretty head, and it steals your attention with careless whispers of “make me make me make me.” That’s this quilt.

At the last Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair I purchased the Bloc_Loc half rectangle triangle ruler set and let them sit in my notions box for a few months too many. Flash forward to September, while I was shopping at Candy’s Quilting those rulers jumped into my head as I fondled Libs Elliott’s Dark Matter fabric from her True Love range. I wrote about that inspiration in Sunday Stash #245:

As I did a twirl through the shop, I then discovered this new range by Cloud9 called Glimmer Solids. This particular gold yarn-dyed colour way was a perfect match, and inspiration was quick to strike. If you follow my Instagram (molli_sparkles) you may have already seen these fabrics coming to life with some half rectangle triangles. I’ve found that the Glimmer Solids curl a bit when ironing, which I assume is because of the metallic bits in them. It’s no real drama as they still sew together fine, but something to note. Also, they have a bit of a rough and tumble texture that I think will wash up incredibly soft. All that to say, that I’m getting my 70s porn star vibe ready to launch!

My initial design process was nothing too fancy. A bazillion half rectangle triangles primarily utilising the Dark Matter and Glimmer solids fabrics with a bunch of other similarly toned and valued fabrics thrown in for variety. I had the title, Gold Dust ruminating in my head throughout, thinking these two base fabrics would feel just like that. One of my consistent design traits is using little bits to form whole lots. Why just have one gold, when you can have 24 karat gold?!

Once I got the whole quilt assembled from the HRTs it sized up to 48″ x 64″. Now, even if I take my heels off, that size of quilt felt a little itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini. Since I had a handful of HRTs and Glimmer fabric leftover, I figured I’d add a border. Which, if you know me at all, is an extremely rare design choice for me. I went to put some gold on the left, a randomly placed HRT here and there, some gold on the right, tops and bottoms. And no! I couldn’t do it, y’all. The symmetry was so traditionally boring.

Instead, I went rogue, and threw all my glittery borders onto one side. What a surprise; I love it! Suddenly there was a lovely amount of negative space (or positive, depending) for twinkling eyes to rest–and then twinkle some more! It also created this suggestion of a landscape, three wise men, night skies, gold dust piling up, or simply patchwork falling apart. I’m not quite sure yet, as the intention was quite unintentional.

I’ve decided to quilt this one myself, so all cylinders are firing with straight line, geometric ideas. If you have any you think I should consider leave them in the comments below!