My Twilight Quilt: Breaking Dawn Book Cover

No longer just a nightmare, the line of black advanced on us through the icy mist stirred up by their feet.

We're going to die, I thought in panic. I was desperate for the precious one I guarded, but even to think of that was a lapse in attention I could not afford.

They ghosted closer, their dark robes billowing slightly with the movement. I saw their hands curl into bone-colored claws. They drifted apart, angling to come at us from all sides. We were outnumbered. It was over.

And then, like a burst of light from a flash, the whole scene was different. Yet nothing changed—the Volturi still stalked toward us, poised to kill. All that really changed was how the picture looked to me. Suddenly, I was hungry for it. I wanted them to charge. The panic changed to bloodlust as I crouched forward, a smile on my face, and the growl ripped through my bared teeth.
–Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, pages 367-368

During my layout revisions, I decided that I needed the book covers in the four corners of the quilt, to kind of 'book end' the quilt, and everything between those four book covers in the corners was what went on in them. I originally planned to do a checkerboard for the book cover. I used my Civil war background fabric for the black and then used a calico print with small flowers and swirls. This is the same white fabric I used in the checkerboard on the Stephenie Meyer Quilt.


But after looking at it for a while, I decided that I wanted to use Natural Fairy Frost so there would be more contrast between the white queen chess piece and the background checkerboard that were to be appliquéd onto the block . So, I made a second try, even though I had no idea what I'd do with the two checkerboards I'd already made.


And then I saw Cat's plans for her own Twilight quilt. And I knew I had to have her design in my quilt, so I discarded my checkerboard block (4 blocks altogether -- OCD much?). I am always so grateful that Cat will share her awesome patterns; I even got to be her pattern tester for this one. I used Fairy Frost (what else?): Red for the pawn, Snow for the Queen and Natural on the chess board. Again, I used the black Civil War reproduction fabric for the background. I keep wondering if it is going to work on the next block but it always seems to look nice with whatever other fabrics I pair it with. I like the contrast in textures between the Fairy Frost and the plain old calico. The chess board is almost the exact size of the book cover (the width is exact, but it is just a tiny bit shorter) and is about as close as you can come to the real thing in fabric. Cat did a really amazing job with this pattern. I traced the chess pieces directly off the cover of the book. More details will be added to the Queen and pawn when they are quilted, defining the ridges on the pieces.


Three attempts and six blocks later, I think I've finally got it right. Here it is, filling its spot on the layout.