My Twilight Quilt: The Meadow

I reached the edge of the pool of light and stepped through the last fringe of ferns into the loveliest place I had ever seen. The meadow was small, perfectly round, and filled with wildflowers – violet, yellow and soft white. Somewhere nearby, I could hear the bubbling music of a stream. The sun was directly overhead, filling the circle with a haze of buttery sunshine. I walked slowly, awestruck, through the soft grass, swaying flowers, and warm, gilded air. –Bella Swan, Twilight, page 259

It's been a whole year since I worked on my Twilight quilt. It is fun to be back at it. This is Iris' meadow, as seen in the Piece, Love, Twilight quilt our little group of Twi-Quilters did for Stephenie Meyer. I debated back and forth for over two years whether to use this block, or the meadow block Cat designed using a still from the movie. It was a tough choice, but in the end I went with this version because in the book, Bella doesn't lie down with Edward in the grass. She sits and watches him. I disapprove of certain liberties film makers take when making a book into a movie. I did, however, use Cat's brilliant idea to use seed beads for the flowers. The trees are the same green fabrics I'm using throughout the quilt. I used a bit of Fairy Frost for the stream, and the meadow fabric was a fabulous share from Wanda. I love our little on-line quilting group. When someone makes an awesome find, there is always the sharing of assets.

This is my favorite part; the layout with one more block filled in. Hey, progress is progress, even if it is slow.

Favourite Things Friday: Needlework

She watched and taught the girls that sang at their embroidery frames while the great silk flowers grew from their needles. –Louise Jordan Miln, The Feast of Lanterns

There is something about taking a needle and thread to fabric that I love. Hand-stitching a binding? You bet! It is one of my favorite parts of the quilting process. Appliqué? Yes, please. Needle-turn or raw-edge; either one will do. Embroidery? I've got an awesome collection of embroidery floss at the ready. Although hand work takes longer than sewing by machine, there is a calming rhythm to it and a huge amount of satisfaction in completing a piece where it was just you and the raw materials.

We all know that I am the queen of works-in-progress. My list of projects started is HUGE! Sew, naturally I have more than one hand project in the works at the moment. I keep each project in a ziplock bag with floss or thread, a needle, and instructions {where applicable}. When I'm in the mood to do a little stitching, I already have something at the ready. I especially love that if I'm going somewhere where I know there will be a bit of sitting and waiting, I can grab a project and a pair of small scissors and have something to keep me occupied.

This is what I'm working on right now; the label for the back of my Snowball Quilt. Somewhere along the way, I decided that embroidered tags were the way to go, even though they are pretty time consuming. I use a word processing program with cute fonts to design the labels. After I have the sizing and fonts and layout just right, I print the 'pattern' out on paper and use a light box to trace it onto my fabric in pencil.

Most of my spare hand stitching time has been taken up with quilt labels, lately. I traced this block out for my Woman's Work quilt in December. The quilt is comprised of needle-turn appliqué and embroidered blocks and I have loved working on it. I had to put it on hold in December for Christmas projects and since then I have only managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of time on it. Still, I'm that much farther ahead when I get back to it {which will be right after I finish my Ph.D. Challenge quilts}.

High on my list of 'what to work on next' is my Boo to You appliqué quilt. This cute little witch is currently in production. I hope to finish the quilt and Zelda's Fancy Hat in time to display for Halloween this year.

This is a previously undisclosed Ph.D. I'm making an Escaping Bug Jar quilt with my mom. Our jar pieces are cut and ready to go and we've nearly finished all the paper piecing blocks. This spider needs his legs satin-stitched on. I added a bit of blending filament to the floss to give it a little shimmer

This panel of trees for my Twilight Quilt is a project long in the making. I started this two years ago. There are actually four panels and each panel has 13 trees. I wanted to secure the trees down with more than just Heat 'n Bond, but I also wanted it to be subtle, so I'm doing a whip-stitch along the raw edges. Each tree takes between 45 minutes and an hour. I'm about a third of the way done with the this little project.

Sew much hand work. Sew little time. I think I'm going to spend my summer doing lots and lots of appliqué and embroidery!

Today's post brought to you by:

My Twilight Quilt: Jacob's House

The Black's House was vaguely familiar, a small wooden place with narrow windows, the dull red paint making it resemble a tiny barn. -Bella Swan, New Moon, page 130

The first block that I completed for my Twilight quilt was called "Where Bella Rests Her Head" and had a little representation of the four places Bella spent a lot of her time in the book -- Charlie's House, Jacob's House, The Cullen's House, and the little cottage where she and Edward lived after they were married.


It was a most marvelous idea and I held onto it through the first and second incarnations of my layout. It was the very last of the original blocks to go. It was too small to fit into the third layout, and so I either needed to add borders to it or re-make it to fit. I decided to keep the ideas in this block but discard this particular layout of it. I kept the Swiss Flag (now a Shield) and turned the four empty corners into more useful space; a couple of the spots going to forest*, and the others to blocks my layout was missing. I replaced the simple houses with fancy ones, starting with patterns from EQ5. I tweaked and re-drew the patterns until I had the perfect houses for Charlie, The Cullen's and Bella & Edward's Cottage.

This is Jacob's House. I'd originally planned for this to just be a house because it only occupies one 6" x 6" area. But there was a bit of forest* by each of the other houses (they occupy a little more space in the quilt) and I really wanted this house to have a little forest* in it too. So with some encouragement, I altered my pattern, scaling back the house and adding a tall, skinny tree*. I think they both fit perfectly in this spot -- the house isn't too small and the little bit of forest* makes it fit right into the setting. The current tree* count for the quilt is 7494.


I love that the tree is a little wonky, that it leans a little. The tree in the other block (remember, I'm making two of these quilts) is a little straighter, but I liked the crooked one for sew-and-tell.

Here's the layout filled in with all the blocks I've completed so far.


Up next? Charlie's block, I think.

*Key: 1 Paper Pieced Tree = 500 Trees in the Forks Forest
1 Raw-Edge Appliqué Tree = 150 Trees in the Forks Forest
1 Raw-Edge Giant Cedar Tree = 6 Giant Cedar Trees around the Cullen's House
1 Paper Pieced Palm Tree = 147 actual Palm Trees on Isle Esme

My Twilight Quilt: The Cullen's, the River & the Cottage

Edward took my hand . . . and darted through the backyard to the edge of the river. -Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, page 409

[Alice] dropped my arm, made two lithe bounds, and leaped over the river.

'C'mon, Bella,' she called from the other side. -Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, page 474

I haven't worked on my Twilight Quilt much as of late. I was a little discouraged with the floating porch on the Cullen's House. So, I've slowed down my pace a little and worked on other things. I finally decided it was time for some renovations. I added supports under the pillars, which hopefully anchor the porch. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but who really relishes the task of unpicking anyway?

I had all the other pieces for this panel put together and so I only needed to put them all together; the Cullen's House, a bit of forest*, the river, more forest* and Bella and Edward's cottage. Click on the photo for a closer look.


This panel occupies the space for three blocks, plus the sashing in between.

The Cullen's House Pattern

*Key: 1 Paper Pieced Tree = 500 Trees in the Forks Forest

My Twilight Quilt: Cottage and Forest

This is Bella & Edward's cottage (you've seen that part) with two of the four panels that will connect it to the Cullen's house.


I have to admit, I'm not crazy about the forest*. The taller tree, closest to the house, is maybe a little too 'patch-worky' or 'country.' Iris shared this pattern with me and I think it is called 'Country Pine.' The pattern directed you to alternate every third section of the tree a different color. I debated about whether or not to do this, right up until I started construction. I pulled out my stash of greens and put three together that I thought would blend well with each other. I started working and still felt hesitant after putting in three sections of tree. I decided to 'give it a chance' and liked it better once I'd rotated through the colors a second time. Now that it is finished and in place I'm back to my original thoughts of it being a little too 'patch-worky.' I do like the brighter green tree which is from 365 Foundation Quilt Blocks by Linda Causee, but it is a little bright next to the other tree. No do-overs though. I'm low on the grey sky background fabric. If I'm careful I should have enough to finish the other two panels of the 'joiner' section and the Cullen's house, plus have enough left for the sky at Jacob's house. I'd really like to use that fabric it in a few other places. I'm going to have to put out another internet search party to find some more.

The next section, which will be on the left of the forest*, is the River and then another tree will sit to the left of that. The Cullen's house will be on the far left. The River pattern is from 365 Foundation Quilt blocks and the third tree is also a 'Country Pine.' I digitally adjusted the patterns for the forest* and river to fit into the space I had available. I took the aspect ratio lock off so I could make both the width and height what I needed them to be. It was a fun process to tweak the patterns so that they would be just right for my project.

I can't wait to get working on the next two sections of the "River and Forest*" portion of this panel.

*Key: 1 Paper Pieced Tree = 500 Trees in the Forks Forest
1 Raw-Edge Appliqué Tree = 150 Trees in the Forks Forest

My Twilight Quilt: Charlie's House

Eventually we made it to Charlie’s. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he’d bought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. –Bella Swan, Twilight, page 8

I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. –Bella Swan, Twilight, page 9

Here is Charlie's house with a little bit of the forest*. I started with two different paper piecing patterns for this section of the quilt. I used a house pattern from a book called 365 Foundation Quilt Blocks by Linda Causee as a beginning place for what I wanted my house to look like. The trees are based on a pattern by Patrice Trnka Adams. I used Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Word to digitally alter the patterns to fit in the spots I needed them. When one program wouldn't do what I needed, I'd switch to the other. I re-sized and re-drew, adding in and pulling out elements until I got the right size, shape and aesthetic that I wanted. My complete pattern is available for download in PDF format here.

Although I have two rows of forest* in my quilt already, I wanted more in this block because the house is surrounded by forest*. The forest is as much a character in the book as Bella and the Cullens. It plays a big role in the setting and so my feeling is that you can't have too many trees in this quilt. There will be more in other blocks. Just wait. Here are some fun details about this block . . . I opened Bella's window so that Edward could sneak in and out. And I'm thinking about adding two golden eyes to the taller of the two trees, if I can pull it off without it being too cheesy. And of course, I used Fairy Frost fabric; Fog for the windows.


I've been looking forward to doing this block for a long time. I've been collecting patterns and fabrics for months now and looking forward to having other projects finished so I can work on this quilt. My only problem now is deciding which block to do next. I think that the roof fabric worked out well as the roof. I'd originally planned to use it as the house, but it would have been too much. I think this light tan fabric is a great compromise between the white house in the movie and the unknown something that wasn't white that I wanted to do. I plan to stick to the book with the color for the Cullen's house (white) and didn't want to have two white houses in the quilt. I think this color has enough tan to it that the houses won't look too much the same. I'm going to ask the quilter stitch in horizontal lines across the house to look like siding and kind of camouflage the (necessary) seams (for creating the steps) at the bottom of the house.

Even though I'm now calling my quilt More Than A Little Obsessed, it is still a bit of a mystery quilt because I had no idea how this block was going to turn out when I started it . But I like the final result.


*Key: 1 Paper Pieced Tree = 500 Trees in the Forks Forest
1 Raw-Edge Appliqué Tree = 150 Trees in the Forks Forest

My Twilight Quilt: Charlie's House Preview

I've been working on the Charlie's House section of the quilt. It encompasses the area of one 6"x 6" block, one 6" x 4" block and the 1" of sashing that would go in between the blocks, so it is an 11" x 6" area. I still haven't decided what fabric to use for the house, although I pulled a few and have been pondering them. Even though the block isn't finished I couldn't resist giving a sneak preview of the forest* that goes next to the house and take up 5" of the 11" across. Iris used this pattern for one of the trees in her Flight Home block in the New Moon Quilt and Jerri Lynn used this tree in her own Twilight quilt. I loved it, so Iris shared her pattern. Thanks for the inspiration and sharing, ladies! LadyBug helped me pick out the green for the trees. She did a pretty good job, I think. There'll be a third green across the bottom as 'grass' but I'm going to do that after I attach the forest* to the house so it is one strip across the bottom & I don't have to worry about matching seams.


*Key: 1 Paper Pieced Tree = 500 Trees in the Forks Forest
1 Raw-Edge Appliqué Tree = 150 Trees in the Forks Forest

My Twilight Quilt: The Forks Forest

The trail wound deeper and deeper into the forest, mostly east as far as I could tell. It snaked around the Sitka spruces and the hemlocks, the yews and the maples. I only vaguely knew the names of the trees around me, and all I knew was due to Charlie pointing them out to me from the cruiser window in earlier days. There were many I didn’t know, and others I couldn’t be sure about because they were so covered in green parasites.
–Bella Swan, Twilight, page 136

The forest* in and around Forks is a character in the books. The Mystery Quilt instructions had us make two tall trees for our quilt, but I just couldn't find a way to finish out these tall trunks to my satisfaction, so I scrapped them.


I replaced them, instead, with two long rows of forest* from the Nature's Sampler pattern by J. Jarger (a terrific find by Iris). The trees are raw edge applique. I'm finishing them by hand with a whip stich.

Here is the top row. I will also be adding the famous "The City of Forks Welcomes You" sign towards the right side. Click on the image for a larger view.


We were suddenly in a small meadow, or was it actually a lawn? The gloom of the forest didn't relent, though, for there were six primordial cedars that shaded an entire acre with their vast sweep of branches. The trees held their protecting shadow right up to the walls of the house that rose among them. -Bella Swan, Twilight, page 321

This tall tree has so much visual interest it just had to be included. It did not start out as such, but it is has become one of the giant cedar trees* that surrounds the Cullen's house. The trunk is made from the fabric that was in one of the huge trunks from the original mystery quilt and extends down into the bottom row of trees, and it really does match up (photo editing makes it a little off). The cedar tree is partially finished (I'll get to the rest soon, but had to show it off) with a heavy machine blanket stitch to add more texture to the tree.


Click on the images for a larger view.

*Key: 1 Paper Pieced Tree = 500 Trees in the Forks Forest
1 Raw-Edge Appliqué Tree = 150 Trees in the Forks Forest

1 Raw-Edge Giant Cedar Tree = 6 Giant Cedar Trees around the Cullen's House

My Twilight Quilt: A Change of Plans

Four sections into my Twilight quilt, the designer had to put a hold on posting her directions due to personal reasons. By then a little group of TwilghtMOMs who were following her patterns had formed. We started a thread where we could talk about our quilts as we worked, show each other pictures, encourage each other, and talk about Twilight together. When the patterns stopped coming, we began to talk about ideas to finish off our quilts since none of us had ever seen the complete design.

I wanted to make a design to complete the four sections I had finished of the Mystery Quilt Heather started. I'd never seen her finished layout and wanted to keep my quilt traditional piecing. I intended for it to be a lap quilt for reading and I really wanted to finish it. One of the first changes I made was to the 'Edward' blocks. I wanted to use a full jewel box block, instead of just a half. I also wanted the diagonal blocks to represent the progression of eye color from gold to black and back again. So I went from these two 6" blocks:


to one 12" block. I couldn't decide if I wanted red or blue in the center, so since I was making two quilts, I did one of each.:


Next I decided to add a 12" Vampire Baseball block. After showing some friends my block, I was informed that home plate faces the other way. "Reverse Sewing" required.

Then I decided to see if I could work out a pattern to finish off the tops of those giant tree trunks.

As the trunks were needle-turn appliqué and I wanted to finish them off with traditional piecing, I didn't get very far and completely abandoned that effort.

Because I was floundering around trying to make a quilt without a design, I decided to draw up a layout of the blocks I had and the blocks I wanted to add. I based my design on that of Iris, another member of our group over at TwilightMOMS (Click on the image for a larger view).


I got to work, but I was already thinking about blocks that I'd left out, making notes on my layout of what I wanted to add. There are so many important and exciting parts to the books that I didn't want to leave anything out.

My Twilight Quilt: How It All Began

I'm a closet Twilight fan. But I think I just 'outed' myself. The Twilight books are books that some people just love and some people just hate. Some might argue that they are campy and adolescent and that they don't adhere to Vampire Cannon. But I find them incredibly romantic and I'm not into vampires anyway. Personally, I love that Stephenie Meyer made her own rules and created her own universe. Who cares if the vampires don't have fangs and can come out during the day?

I started reading Twilight on September 16, 2008. My world was turned completely upside down and I had to rethink my life. I scoured the web for anything Twilight related and eventually ended up at TwilightMOMS. I joined the forums and made friends. That's where I met Heather Laddick, Zeppelin Threads Quilt shop owner. She was thinking of making a Twilight quilt and sharing the patterns 'mystery style.' I encouraged her to go ahead with her plans. In January of 2009 she started giving out instructions for her quilt and I followed along. She'd divided her quilt into six sections, revealing them one section at a time every two weeks.

So, I selected my fabrics and began work. As I got working on things, I realized that I had enough fabric for two quilts and I decided that I was going to make one for myself and one for Stephenie Meyer.

The first section, "Freshman Year" was a representation of the places Bella frequented in the books; (moving clockwise) Charlie's House, Jacob's House, The Cullen's House and Bella and Edward's Cottage. The chimneys made a Swiss Flag in the center of the block,representing Bella's 'neutral status' and declaration I am a neutral country. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by territorial disputes between mythical creatures.

Section two, or "Sophomore Year" was a representation of the forest in and around Forks. Since none of us had seen the final design of the quilt, we were all wondering how these amazing tree trunks were going to be finished off.


"Junior Year" was a lot of fun. It was a representation of Edward and Jacob. The 'Edward' blocks sat on either side of 'Jacob.'


"Senior Year" was the first section that I was really not excited about. It was a progression of the moon phases from New Moon to Full Moon. It was clever, but it seemed a 'space filler' to me.

After Senior Year, there was a huge pause in the proceedings. Heather had some unforeseen personal issues arise, and so I began to dabble around with my own designs. Eventually, instructions for the last two sections of the quilt, "Prom" and "Graduation," were posted, but by then I had decided to go a different direction with my quilt.