Quilt Finish – Cool Calm & Collected

Are you ready for a spin on this quilting disco? Would you believe that this is one of seven finished quilts that I need to show you! Cray to the Z. Lockdown has been good on my finishing schedule—it’s funny what you can get done when not distracted by, oh, I don’t know—normal, everyday life! So let’s start with my Cool Calm & Collected quilt, which I started just on one year ago in October 2019. That’s actually a pretty good start-to-finish turn around time for me. I know for a fact that if you’re a quilter, you’ve always got at least three projects on the go at once. Am I right, or am I right? (I hear plenty of you out there going, “Three? How about thirty-three.”)

This picture of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach inspired this quilt. While gorgeous, this is actually a pretty sad photo. It was the the last time I saw Bondi before the bushfire season started to suffocate the beach–and country–in shrouds of smoke that lasted tragically for months. As the scenario raged on, Mr. Sparkles and I ruminated about the ever-present smoke ruining our March wedding. Little did we know that would be the least of our (or the world’s) worries heading into 2020. Not to be too macabre, but this photo belies the beauty with a portent of things to come beneath the white-capped waves.

This triangle-in-a-square designed quilt was constructed using my Bloc-Loc ruler. If you’re like me, you’ll often buy a notion, ruler, gadget, gizmo, or whirligig that promises to change your quilting life, only to have it sit unused for months. (Okay, okay, years. Decades anyone? Ouch!) So in an effort to prevent that, I regularly plan quilts around said notion to ensure they get a heavy flogging. Well after making an entire quilt with this Bloc-Loc ruler, I can say “Level UnLoc-ed!”

In addition to the Bondi Beach photo, and the Bloc-Loc ruler, I threw in one other design constraint: metallic fabrics! My name is Molli Sparkles, after all! Every fabric in this quilt top has a metallic element as part of its design. You’ll see fabrics from Jennifer Sampou’s many ranges, but also Mirror Ball Dots, Cotton + Steel, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, and a myriad of random fabrics from my global fabric adventures. While the binding fabric doesn’t contain a metallic element, the exact match colour way could not be ignored! It’s a Robert Kaufman digital print of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Garden of the Asylum that I purchased at A&E Fabrics back in January 2018. At the time I had no idea how it was going to be used, but damn, I’m glad I picked it up!

True story: While Grandma Sparkles was here, she bound this quilt for me. After she had finished, I had to tell her I didn’t think her stitches were good enough. I put her in the time out closet for three hours and then made her do it all again. Listen. If you want to work with Molli, your work has to sparkle! Needless to say, she didn’t like my attitude and I’ve since taken over binding duties. (Only, part of that story is true, I’ll let you decide which parts!)

For the quilting, I turned to my tried and true longarm partner, Leanne of Mount Vincent Quilts. I know she’ll always steer me straight (not that straight, girl, please.) even when quilting my quilt with swirls. I adore the relationship we’ve built through our quilting collaborations. Not that I want her to be so busy that she no longer has time for me, ahem, but if you need a longarmer, I highly recommend her talents.

The backing is a Kate Spain seasonal fabric that I’ve had stashed since 2015. Don’t you love when you can finally carve up some of that long ago stashed fabric? I’ve suggested this before, but don’t be afraid to comb through seasonal / Christmas fabrics when they go on sale. There can be some amazing bargains found that don’t read reindeer and candy canes. I think I paid five dollars a yard for this, and not one inch of it reads holiday. Shop smarter, not harder! As an aside, you’d never find it, but that’s a pieced backing! I glue basted the seam to get an exact match, and “Bob’s Your Aunt!” it practically disappears.

Because this quilt needed to be loved on high, I gifted it to a special friend for her birthday. That’s probably my favourite thing to do with quilts: just give them away. There’s such joy that comes with not only giving away part of yourself that is imbibed with your handwork, but also experiencing someone else’s gratitude for the effort and time involved. As an artist, I know I’m privileged to have the resources and skills to do what I do, so sharing that with others can bring some light to the world. Quilts can connect–transcending all the other global noise–by allowing creator and recipient to share in the warmth, both literal and metaphorical, of their tactility. As quilters, we certainly can change the world, even if it is one stitch at a time.

Title: Cool Calm & Collected
Size: 52″ x 72″
Pattern: Triangle In a Square
Fabric: Various metallics from my stash
Quilting: Long arm quilting, by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: hand stitched with Aurifil 50wt, colour 4665 Graphite Variegated
Backing: Pieced backing using Kate Spain Solstice – Embellishment in Icicle
Favourite Part: Rediscovering all of my metallic fabrics together, and the inspiration photograph leading to the endgame recipient.