Sparkly Me

Within my small group of quilting friends I'm known for two things; that I hand piece a lot of my quilts and that I like sparkly fabric.

You would hardly think that these two 'likes' go hand in hand.  Most people see hand piecing as a throwback to the antiquity of quilting, something not much in favor anymore.  And well,  sparkly fabric?  It sounds like stuff you would only use in kids projects or appropriate for a Halloween costume but I love it.  I love that it adds the unexpected to what might otherwise be a very plain and predictable quilt.  And my latest quilt proves that.

I named this quilt 'Sparkly Me'.  It's hand pieced and uses two different colors of sparkle fabric - one in white with a patterned sparkle motif and the other a deep, deep mottled blue (almost black) with sparkles all over.  These are mixed with two more fabrics in a small patterned dark grey and light grey.  And finally I used an elaborate printed focus fabric with a circular motif and black background that I purchased some years ago and held on to with no ideas for its final outcome.  It was during my quilt groups last retreat that the idea for Sparkly Me came about and I thought ‘I have the PERFECT fabric!’

My quilting group, Running  With Scissors, had begun routinely choosing a quilt pattern that we make separately and then come together when finished to compare how they all looked with our different ideas.  We've started calling this exercise our 'group quilt' though we work on it individually and it’s not one quilt passed among all of us.  Sparkly Me is the second quilt I created from this exercise.

The pattern itself is a very simple one.  I think the interesting aspect of this particular pattern is in what fabrics you use in its creation.  Because the individual finished blocks are large, 12 inches square, and the center of six of the 12 blocks are a large 8 inch square alone, it's the perfect pattern to use a focus fabric on that can be fussy cut.  My focus fabric is an elaborate print that lends itself well to mixing with a bit more 'out there' glitter to brighten it up.  Right now it's only a quilt top but I'm going to finish it soon using metallic thread for the quilting.  This is a different kind of quilt for me because it's the first I ever made that won't be used as a bed quilt.  It’s going to be a wall decoration for either my home or in my office - I haven't decided which yet.

Of course as I was putting a series of borders on  I attached it front to back instead of front to front.  Aaaaahhhh!  What can I say.  My sewing room was too hot so my head was fuzzy (that’s my excuse anyway).