Quilt Finish – Gold Dust

Do you need some liquid gold coming down from the heavens? Well let me show you my latest quilt finish! I think I managed to turn celestial bodies of dark matter and glimmer, into pure sparkling gold dust!

Truth tea time: this quilt design was a total mistake! The original intent was to have a full bleed of half rectangle triangles. Except, I got to the end of my Libs Elliott fabric (Dark Matter in Black Metallic from the True Love range), and with all the HRTs combined, the quilt top wasn’t quite up to size. Let me recap.

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.

Molli Sparkles, February 2018

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.

Molli Sparkles, February 2018

I’m a tall guy, but sometimes I will go to exceptional circumstances to get the quilt shot. For example, that’s me crouching tiger, hidden dragon-ing behind my quilt. Let me tell you, it’s a jungle out here in the city for quilt locations. Urban centres are not really full of the quilt people like small-town America, y’all. The looks I get–the lewks could burn the village down!

While I thought I was going to quilt this myself, pandemic times had me saying “no thank you,” and I sent it to Leanne at Mount Vincent Quilts. She threw on an appropriate diamond panto so I could get another quilt done and dusted. As my WIPs were piling to the ceiling, I was more than happy to receive it back with such a referential design. The backing is Art Gallery Pure Elements in Cabernet, full solid flush. It picks up the little flecks in Libs Dark Matter print, as well as being a real regal reference point when combined with the multitude of gold hues.

Of course I had to throw in my signature glitter-flecked-binding detail. I’ve been doing this since something like my third quilt, so you’ll always know if you’ve got a Molli original! I just love this picture below; it’s like a sneaky peak into someone’s picnic leftovers. Someone didn’t leave the champagne behind though! So there you go, another solid gold quilt finish!

Title: Gold Dust
Size: 62″ x 62″
Pattern: Half-rectangle triangles, Molli Sparkles original
Fabric: Libs Elliott Dark Matter in Black Metallic from True Love, Cloud9 Glimmer solid in gold, and various coordinating prints
Piecing: Machine stitched on Juki TL-98P with Aurifil 50wt, 2024 White
Quilting: Long arm quilting, by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: hand stitched with Aurifil 40wt, 1240 Very Dark Eggplant
Backing: Solid backing using Art Gallery Pure Elements in Cabernet
Timing: December 2017 – August 2020
Favourite Part: The subtle collage of fabrics.