My Twilight Quilt: Bella's Bracelet Redux

[Jacob] turned the bag upside down and shook something silver into my hand. Metal links clinked quietly against each other.

"I didn't make the bracelet," he admitted. "Just the charm."

Fastened to one of the links of the silver bracelet was a tiny wooden carving. I held it between my fingers to look at it closer. It was amazing the amount of detail involved in the little figurine – the miniature wolf was utterly realistic. It was even carved out of some red-brown wood that matched the color of his skin. –Bella Swan, Eclipse, page 374

[Edward] pulled my left wrist away from my leg, and touched the silver bracelet for just a moment. Then he gave me my arm back.

I examined it cautiously. On the opposite side of the chain from the wolf, there now hung a brilliant heart-shaped crystal. It was cut in a million facets, so that even in the subdued light shining from the lamp, it sparkled. I inhaled a low gasp. –Bella Swan, Eclipse, page 438

Bella's Bracelet was one of the first blocks I made for my Twilight Quilt. That is to say, after I discarded all the blocks from the Zeppelin Threads Mystery Quilt, made my own layout and then changed it 2½ times, it was one of the first blocks I did. But it just wasn't quite right. The block {really, set of two blocks, because I'm making two quilts} went in the huge pile of orphaned Twilight quilt blocks and I went back to the drawing board.

I puzzled and puzzled over exactly the right background fabric to use in this block. The Mystery Quilt assigned purple to Bella, presumably, because in the movie Charlie buys her a purple comforter set for her bed. I tried to carry that over from the Mystery Quilt; the idea of assigning a color and fabric to each character to use throughout the quilt. And I wanted to use the fabrics I'd already invested in. It works great for Jacob. I found a really cool Moda Marbles in russet for him. I used that for his little wolf charm on the bracelet and on his Wolf Paw block. And it works for Edward too – white and sparkly. I used that in the heart charm on the bracelet, in his Diamond Heart block and in the Fire and Ice block. {Sidebar: I'm wondering why I didn't use Jacob's russet fabric in that block too. I went with an earthy orange fabric to represent fire, because the block is called Fire and Ice. But the design is very abstract and since it represents Jacob and Edward I could have gone with the russet fabric just as easily as the orange. I'd better not think about that too much, or I'll obsess over it and have another block for the orphan pile .}

I had a hard time with a color for Bella, though. The Mystery Quilt, with mostly traditionally pieced and appliqué blocks, was a very different style than my new layout, though. The fabric I used just didn't work for the paper pieced bracelet block {but it looks really nice in my Snowball Quilt }, so I went out and bought four or five other purple fabrics. Some of the Twilight Quilter's Coven girls even sent me purple fabrics. But none of them worked. So, I shoved the pattern to the back of my stack. As time passed, I pretty much gave up the idea of using one color to represent Bella and started thinking about the best color to use to set off the bracelet; the best color to use as a background. The last time I thought about it seriously, gold was at the top of my list. I like gold and silver together, and it seemed a nice, neutral color. I didn't have a specific fabric in mind, but last week when I pulled out my things to work on Edward's Diamond Heart, right on top was a piece of pretty ivory fabric with tiny gold flecks on it that Wanda had sent me. Bella's Bracelet was next in line after the Diamond Heart, so my mind was working on it more actively. Things clicked into place and I finally had a fabric that seemed just right for the background.

I used Silver Fairy Frost for the bracelet {what else? } Under the 'frost' overlay, the fabric has subtle variations in color and I used the lighter fabric for the front of the bracelet and the darker fabric for the back, as indicated in the pattern, to give it perspective. As mentioned, the little wolf charm is made from a Moda Marbles in russet and the heart charm is white with iridescent sparkles {Crystalline Solids from JoAnn's}. I'll add jump rings to the block {probably after it is quilted} so the charms are attached to the bracelet.

This is one of the first Twilight patterns Cat designed. We used it in the Stephenie Meyer quilt and it is included in Cat's Mystery BOM.

And now my favorite part of my Twilight Quilt Sew and Tell, the layout with one more block filled in :