Quilt Finish – Everything She Wanted

Heavens to Betsi! Does this quilt have a story. We are gonna go back, like, way back, to July 2014 when I participated in a Kate Spain charm square swap hosted by my friend Midge. “It’ll be fun,” they said. “I’ll expand my design aesthetic,” I mused. “Her fabrics are so gorgeous,” they said. “I’m not sure this is for me,” I questioned. “You just need more of them,” they said. “Someone hold me,” I cried. “Don’t you love it?” they said. “I hate it,” and I pushed it away like a plate of Brussel sprouts!

That’s my version of events, anyway! You see, I thought Kate’s fabrics and I could be new friends. They’d push my creative boundaries and allow me to develop in new pastel ways. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, I made horrible design choice after horrible design choice that fought again Kate’s wonderfully beautiful fabric designs. (Listen—I need to note that everything wrong here was my fault, and no blame is shouldered to the extremely talented Kate Spain!) I went into this quilt without a solid plan, and then tried to improvise my way out of a corner. I often design-on-the-fly, but for whatever reason it just wasn’t happening with this quilt. 

The first iteration of the finished quilt top was a droopy, depressing mess. I knew it, the quilt knew it, even that stairwell knew it. Shortly after taking this photo, I folded this quilt top up and promptly put her in timeout … for a few years. It wasn’t until I started reorganising some of my fabric collection (and thus the boxes of WIPs) that I pulled this ugly duckling out again. We had a few sideways glances at each other before I started cutting off the Essex Yarn Dyed in Denim fabric from each side of the vertical run of HSTs. Note to self: Don’t buy any more Essex Yarn Dyed in Denim as it doesn’t match your skin tone! I actually thought I was on to something when I was left with this smorgasbord of a Kate Spain HST panel. Yeah, apparently, I wasn’t on to all that much. I folded and stashed the Essex, and shoved the Kate Spain back in the back of the back of the very back-back WIP box. Again, for years!

It wasn’t until October 2020, as the world was on fire and I was trying to cleanse myself (still am) of my burdensome WIPs, that this quilt once again got drug out for contemplation. At this stage, I had learned a lot more about myself as a quilter, and even more so as a person. I knew that this quilt may never be right, but unfinished in a box for years upon years was even more wrong. Hell, I should have cut my losses way back in 2014, yet here I was still struggling with how to finish this lingering lump. So right then and there I decided it would get finished, no matter how imperfect and ugly that might be. 

I grabbed the rest of my pre-assembled HSTs and wasted no time in sewing them up into another panel. Did I dare put them on point too, to match the existing panel? Nah! Nope! Nada! Just get ‘er done into something that resembled a quilt top. To allow for the directional break between the two panels of HSTs, I used a trick I often employ for the back of my quilts—a mod stripe or two. As I had learned years ago, many of Kate’s fabrics rely on tinted hues (a colour + white, e.g. pastels) with an occasional bombastic pop of floral pink. Thinking about both of these design choices together led me to a striking pink and dark citron. I knew these complimentary colours (across from each other on the colour wheel) would radiate against each other. As brighter solids they should then float on top of the mish-mash of the variety of Kate Spain fabrics surrounding them.

And like that, I finally had a finished quilt top. But as we all know (or at least read above), I’d been in this exact place before. Six years before to be exact. A finished quilt top does not make a finished quilt! Oh no! However, I did finally feel like this quilt top and me were at peace/piece with each other in a way that I could confidently send her to Leanne of Mount Vincent Quilts for her longarm services. Ultimately, the fabric just needed to be berated into a finish.

Serendipitously, around this same time I found yardage on sale from Fabric Sauce in exactly the right amount for a quilt back. Each Kate Spain fabric works lovingly well with the next. So even though the fabrics in the quilt top were from years gone by, the backing is perfectly coordinated. I quickly shuttled both top and back (along with five other quilts!) to Leanne just so I didn’t get bogged down in overthinking the design again. I had to accept that this quilt was what it was.

What I got back from Leanne was a garden delight! I hadn’t dared to suggest a quilting design (as I normally do) because I had been so bogged down in previous design elements. When I dropped the quilts off to her I think I may have even said something along the lines of, “This quilt is dead to me, do what you want to with it!” She threw on some Appletini-hued thread, and had her way. And what a glorious way it turned out to be!

That design embodies all of the movement that the HSTs are also generating through the quilt. When she came up in my binding queue, I opted for a machine stitched binding. I’m very much a traditionalist when it comes to binding — hand stitching each one down with love. Well, clearly, there’s been no love lost between me and this quilt, so I wasn’t about to spend all that time giving her more of my sweet, sweet stitching. Plus, as it had been many quilts ago since I used a machined binding, I figured I should check in. Nope. Still don’t like it. But, this was an excellent quilt to reconfirm that!

This quilt literally got everything she wanted out of me, and I hope she’s proud of it. It was started nearly an eternity ago, in a quilty world shiny and new with endless possibilities. It drug me through the ups and downs, and left me wanting to go to town for cocktails. At times I felt torn apart, and I now like seeing that mod stripe reference that feeling. While I know this isn’t my best work, for a quilt that has taken nearly seven-and-a-half years to complete, she’s been a fitting part of the journey. I know she will eventually give some other person everything they want and more.

Title: Everything She Wanted
Size: 62″ x 72″ 
Pattern: Half square triangles, Molli Sparkles design 
Fabric: Kate Spain charm squares from multiple ranges
Piecing: Machine stitched on Juki TL-98P with Aurifil 50wt, 2024 White
Quilting: Long arm quilting, by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: Machine-stitched with Aurifil 50wt, 5017 Shining Green
Backing: Kate Spain Paradiso Pink
Timing: July 2014 – November 2021
Favourite Part: It’s done.