Twilight Saga Charity Quilt

When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it’s not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end. –Bella Swan, Twilight, page 1

I know. My geek is showing. But we're all friends here, right? And it's no secret that I ♥ Twilight. Since January of 2009, I've been working on a Twilight-themed quilt {which I really want to finish this year} and also collaborating with an on-line group of friends to create more Twilight-themed quilts, which have been auctioned or "raffled" off and all the proceeds given to charity. We call ourselves the Twi-Quilters. And we all love Twilight. But more than that, we've become friends.

All told, we've made seven eight quilts together and we are proud to show our ninth quilt and to give you an opportunity to win it—all for charity, of course.

My part in this quilt was the center block; representations of the four book covers. The patterns were designed by Cat, and I'd done three of the four covers several times each. The Eclipse cover was the only one I hadn't done and I was excited to try it. I enlarged the patterns to 12" and used my favorite Fairy Frost fabrics to put them together.

Our group members have donated all the fabrics and supplies as well as our time, to create this beautiful quilt, which includes our favorite scenes from all four of the Twilight Saga books. Angie, our quilter extraordinaire, has expertly and artfully finished the quilt and we're going to give it away to one lucky fan! For every $5 donation from you, which will go directly to George Mark Children's House, you’ll get one chance to win the quilt. We hope you'll give generously to this worthy cause. Donations will be accepted through March 9, 2013 and the winner will be announced by March 15, 2013.

Visit the Twilight Saga Quilt Page for more information and links to posts about the individual blocks..

Make your donation

The Twilight Saga Charity Quilt

“Twilight again,” he murmured. “Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end.” –Edward Cullen, Twilight, page 495

I belong to this really awesome on-line quilting group. We met through the TwilightMOMS forums and live scattered across the US. We even have a member {and pattern designer extraordinaire} in Australia. We're a little nutty in our obsession with a series of books about sparkly teenage vampires, and the crazy is translated with fabric and thread into quilts. We call ourselves the Twi-Quilters.


Over the last four years, we've created four Twilight themed quilts. We gave our first one to Stephenie Meyer, the author of our favorite books, and we auctioned off the other three and donated the proceeds to two different charities.

The final movie in the Twilight franchise, Breaking Dawn, part 2 is set to be released in just under a month. In conjunction with this culminating event, we are pleased to announce the Twilight Saga Charity Quilt. Here's just a teaser ...

The quilt will also include one embroidered quote and five blocks from each of the books, depicting our favorite moments in the Twilight series. Watch for more about this quilt coming soon.

As always, our goal is to raise money for a worthy cause. We're donating our time and materials and for every $5 donation you make to our charity, you'll get one chance to win the quilt. We've chosen George Mark Children's Hospital to receive your contributions. Details on donations will be announced soon.


In the meantime, here's a little something to tide you over. I mean, is there such a thing as too much Twilight?

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month: Block 12

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

This is it! The very last of the beginner's blocks in Cat's Mystery Block of the Month. These were so fun to work up. In this block, I used Fairy Frost in Natural for the white squares on the chess board and the red square is Holly Berry. This was fun and fast to put together. I would only make one tiny recommendation if you try this pattern, sew rows 2 and 4 from the opposite end {start at 4 and work backwards} so that the seams are opposite when you sew the rows together. It helps with getting everything lined up.

I've been thinking about how I'd like to put these blocks together. I can't decide if I want to do solid black sashing, or black sashing with red setting squares. And I can't decide which fabric to use. But I definitely want to get it put together soon.

I did the advanced block quite a while ago. I was Cat's pattern tester. Her pattern designs always amazed me. Here is the block that will go in my Twilight quilt. You can see another version I did of it here.

Today's post brought to you by:

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month: Block 10

The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse. –Jacob Black, Eclipse, page 600

Month 10 of Cat's Mystery Block of the Month is the Eclipse book cover. The beginner's block is a stylized version of it. The block goes together very quickly. I used Fairy Frost in Holly Berry for the ribbon, using the color variations in the fabric to add a little bit of dimension to the block.

I did not do the advanced block for this month, although I would have liked to. The detailed pattern for the Eclipse book cover has been available for a year, but when I started on my Twilight quilt, it was not available. I used a pretty satin ribbon for the Stephenie Meyer quilt, Piece, Love, Twilight, and did the same for my quilt. You can see the block here. In an effort not to orphan any more blocks for that quilt, I decided to stick with what I'd already done. But I am hoping to get the chance to do Cat's block sometime, because I really love the talent she has for paper piecing designs.

Today's post brought to you by:

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month: Block 3

It didn't matter to me that we were surrounded by our extraordinarily dangerous enemies. As the clock began to toll out the hour, vibrating under the soles of my sluggish feet, I knew I was too late – and I was glad something bloodthirsty waited in the wings. For in failing at this, I forfeited any desire to live.

The clock tolled again, and the sun beat down from the exact center point of the sky.
–Bella Swan, New Moon, pages 1-2


I haven't worked on anything Twilighty in a while. I've been listening to the audio books lately while I have been working on other things, so I thought I'd dust my paper piecing skills off and see what I could get done. The April blocks {yes, I know I'm waayyy behind} are representations of the New Moon book cover. Everybody is scratching their heads over the parrot tulip that graces the cover. It is a really far stretch to relate it to anything in the book, so I won't even go into that.

I'm doing all my beginner's blocks at 3" {I reduced the pattern to 60%} and I want all the images to really pop, so I'm using my stash of Fairy Frost. I scanned the block, so some of the shimmer is lost. I used Hollyberry for the red {I also used it in the apple for my beginner's block one} and Snow for the white. I really like this stylized version of the tulip. The pattern is really fast and easy, too. I finished it in about an hour.

The advanced block is a more literal recreation of the book cover. I got to be Cat's pattern tester for this block. You can see my first block here. The finished block comes out at 5". The dots {while awesome for other stuff} are a little distracting and my seams pull just a little. Then I reduced the pattern to 80% {see also: ideas-that-sound-great-in-my-head-but-are-a-little-tricky-in-the-execution } and made four more of these to use in our quilt for Stephenie Meyer. I did three other parrot tulips blocks {enlarged to 120% for a 6" finished block}; one for a book cover banner, and two more for my own twin Twilight Quilts {have I mentioned ideas that sound good in my head but are a little crazy in real life?}.

I know I've posted about this block before, but since it's been a while since I've done anything Twilighty, a re-run will have to do.

Here is a little index {mostly for me} of each of the blocks that have been released to date. I've got a little catching up to do .
Block 1, February: Twilight Book Cover
Block 2, March: Charlie
Block 3, April: New Moon Book Cover
Block 4, May: Edward
Block 5, June: Bella {with bonus pattern}
Block 6, July: Jacob
Block 7, August: Edward & Bella
Block 8, September: Edward, Bella & Jacob

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month: Block 1

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month is really exciting. I've seen her layouts, both for the beginner's quilt and the advanced. I even got to test a few of the advanced patterns for her. I consider that quite an honor. I will be using nearly all of her advanced patterns in my own Twilight Quilt, so I will have those blocks to show each month, but I won't be assembling them in her layout. So, I thought that I would follow along with the beginner's blocks and put together a little sampler. I've decided to do them at 3" instead of 5" (I reduced the pattern to 60%) and I'm going to use my favorite shimmery and sparkly fabrics for this little sampler.

Here's my little apple, beginner's block #1. It was fun and quick to put together. I used the very sparkly Hollyberry Fairy Frost for the apple.


And this is my advanced block #1 done at 6" (enlarged the pattern to 120%). I've had it done for quite a while, waiting to go in my Twilight quilt, but since it's the block of the month . . . any occasion to do a bit of sew-and-tell, right?

Twilight Obsession: A Banner

As I've been working on my twin Mystery Quilt blocks, specifically the book covers, I have also made a third set of book cover blocks to put together in a little banner as a Christmas gift for a non-quilting TwilighMOMS friend. I've had to keep it under wraps, but as she's unwrapped her gift I can share now. I know I've posted my other blocks like these, but it is fun to have them all in one spot and this is a separate project, after all.

The Twilight Book Cover, designed by Cat. It is enlarged to 120% to make a 6" block. The fabrics in the apple were from Iris and the hands are the favorite iridescent sparkle fabrics in white and cream from JoAnn's. The black swirl in the background is also from JoAnn's. It is a little difficult to see here, and you'll get a better look at it in the other blocks. The apple stem is hand satin stitch. This is the third Forbidden Fruit block I've made.

The New Moon Book Cover, designed by Cat and enlarged to 120%. The red fabric is the same as in the apple, from Iris, and the few pieces of dark burgundy are from Wanda. Thanks girls! The white is Snow Fairy Frost and the green in the stem is a marble print that I used for the stem and leaves in the proposal block in the New Moon Quilt. This is the eighth Broken Petals block I've made, one trial block at 100%, four blocks at 80% for the Stephenie Meyer quilt and three at this size.

The Eclipse Book Cover. I did this the same way I did the ribbon on the Stephenie Meyer quilt, using the actual book as the model for it. I even used a left-over piece of ribbon from the Stephenie Meyer quilt. In addition to the ribbon in the Stephenie Meyer quilt and this block, I've made two other 6" ribbon blocks.

Cat's Breaking Dawn cover, enlarged to 120%. Although all of Cat's patterns are fun to do, this one was particularly fun for me, though I'm not sure why. I just really enjoyed doing it. The chessboard squares are Natural Fairy Frost (a favorite!) and I traced the chess pieces directly off the book cover. The chess pieces are made from the same pattern I used for the SM quilt, and did them at the same time. The queen is Snow Fairy Frost and the pawn is Red Fairy Frost. I've done three of these blocks.

The picture is a little distorted, but here is the finished banner, which I named Twilight. I should have called it Twilight Obsession, but didn't think of it until too late. Angie did a beautiful job machine quilting it for me. Thanks so much, Angie! The banner idea was Iris'. We were talking about our mystery quilts and how to fit in the book covers. She only included the Twilight Book Cover in her mystery quilt and at the time I was debating about using her awesome placement idea or putting each of the book covers in the four corners of the quilt. She said that she was going to make a book-cover only hanging, either in a banner, like this, or with two covers in the top row and two covers in the bottom row. I filed that idea away and thought it might be a great gift for a fellow Twilight lover.

The red fabric is left over from the Stephenie Meyer quilt. The borders around the 6" book cover blocks are 2" and the black borders are 4", I think. I worked this one out as I went, something I don't usually do, and I didn't write it down for future reference. Oops! I like to have a layout marked to scale on grid paper so I can make sure everything fits. This seemed like a straightforward design, so I worked out the details as I went. When I bound it, I included loops for hanging. The loops lay flat against the back of the banner, so if she wants to use it as a table runner, she won't have a problem hiding them. I brought in extra lighting to try to get a good picture, but the contrast between the black and white confuses the camera and so it is difficult to get a picture that isn't really dark. If you want to see a bigger view of it, just click on the picture.

Angie did a great job with the quilting. She did accent quilting around each of the Book Cover pieces. Then in the borders, she used a really fantastic sort of filigree pattern. It is very striking. Here is a close-up of that (click on the picture for an even bigger view).

She quilted in a complimenting pattern in the red frames around each block. Here is a close-up of one side (again, click on it for a bigger view):

This is what it looks like all the way around. The photo isn't the best (I was in a hurry to get it in the mail and only took one picture of the frames), but I hope you can see how cool the design looks around the blocks. You can also see the accent stitching that she did on the book cover elements in this block.

The quilting really makes this runner spectacular. Thanks for a great job, Angie!

My Twilight Quilt: New Moon Book Cover

I felt like I was trapped in one of those terrifying nightmares, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough. My legs seemed to move slower and slower as I fought my way through the callous crowd, but the hands on the huge clock tower didn't slow. With relentless, uncaring force, they turned inexorably toward the end -- the end of everything.

But this was no dream, and unlike the nightmare, I wasn't running for my life; I was racing to save something infinitely more precious. My own life meant little to me today.

Alice had said there was a good chance we would both die here. Perhaps the outcome would be different if she weren't trapped by the brilliant sunlight; only I was free to run across this bright, crowded square.

And I couldn't run fast enough.

So it didn't matter to me that we were surrounded by our extraordinarily dangerous enemies. As the clock began to toll out the hour, vibrating under the soles of my sluggish feet, I knew I was too late -- and I was glad something bloodthirsty waited in the wings. For in failing at this, I forfeited any desire to live.

The clock tolled again, and the sun beat down from the exact center point of the sky.
-Bella Swan, New Moon, pages 1-2

I'm excited to have all four book covers and consequently all four corners of my quilt finished! This is the New Moon Book cover, pattern designed by the lovely and talented Cat. I had previously made five other Broken Petals blocks when working on the Stephenie Meyer quilt. I made one test block at 5", and then four more, reduced to 80% to add to the medallion center of the quilt. For my quilt, I enlarged the pattern to 120%, to make a 6" block.

As I was working my blocks this time, I compared the design to the book cover. Cat does an amazing job using light and shadow and color to create the book covers. It is no small task to translate a picture into workable pieces on a pattern, even using the paper piecing method. I think that when I have it quilted, I would like to have the "veins" of the flower petals quilted in to give it that delicate look that the book cover has. The main red color is a fabric that Iris sent me. I think she's used it in her quilt as well. I had exactly enough to make the tulips. Thanks Iris! The darker burgundy accent (just a few spots of it) is from Wanda. The white is Snow Fairy Frost (can I ever manage a block without Fairy Frost?) and the background is the black I've chosen to use throughout my quilt. I know I've mentioned it before, but is a Civil War reproduction fabric and that always makes me think of Jasper when I think of that. It always surprises me that it fits in so well in every block I've used it in. The tiny flowers are so perfect. They add just the right texture and color compliment to the blocks.

And here is the layout, with all four corners filled in:

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.

My Twilight Quilt: Eclipse Book Cover

The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse. –Jacob Black, Eclipse, page 600

Part of my contribution to the Stephenie Meyer quilt was the Eclipse section in the medallion. I wanted a representation of each of the four book covers in my own quilt. I used a washable polyester ribbon from JoAnn's for this block. Using the same technique as I did for the Stephenie Meyer quilt, I used the scissors to cut away the selvage edge a few inches into the ribbon, and then pulled the cross fibers out about an inch down. Then I snipped away the remaining fibers, using the book cover as model for how much to snip away and what to leave. Then I pinned the ribbon in place, again using the book as my guide, and sewed the edges down.

My Twilight Quilt: Twilight Book Cover

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. –Genesis 2:17

It's twilight . . . the safest time of day for us . . . the easiest time. But also the saddest in a way . . . the end of another day, the return of the night. –Edward Cullen, Twilight, page 233

As much as I wanted to keep my Twilight quilt traditional quilting, it was hard to resist some amazing paper piecing patterns by Australian designer Cat Magraith. A member of our group on TwilightMOMS pointed us SewHooked, a free paper piecing website where her patterns were hosted. I resisted, looking for ways to represent the books without using paper piecing, but in the end, I gave in and decided to include the Forbidden Fruit block, Cat's tribute to the iconic cover of the Twilight book.

After finishing the most detailed paper piecing pattern I'd ever done, I posted to my friends at TwilightMOMS, I did it! It only took forever, but I finished my Forbidden Fruit block!

All of Cat's patterns are done at 5", which much be confusing since they use metrics in Australia, so I enlarged it to 120% to make a 6" block. The black background fabric is a Civil War reproduction fabric and I'm using it throughout where a black background is called for, as well as for the outside border and quilt back and binding. The white and cream fabrics have an iridescent sparkle to them, which is difficult to photograph or scan. The reds in the apple are from a fabric swap, with one of my dear Twilight Quilters Coven friends and fellow TwilightMOM, Iris. The stem is hand satin stitch embroidery.

Inasmuch as I had started two quilts, I decided that I wanted to continue with two quilts. My design had changed, I'd discarded some blocks and we decided to make a group quilt to give to Stephenie Meyer, but I had enough fabric on my hands for two quilts and I decided that's what I wanted to do. Even after spending hours and hours on duplicates of on 6" quilt block, I decided that I wanted to make two quilts. Eight months later, I'm still not certain what I'm going to do with the second quilt, but as I work my blocks, I always make them in twins.