Making Tracks – A Quilt Reveal

In November 2014 I designed and made this quilt, “Making Tracks”, for Handmade. When I was drawing up the design I had this idea to take one of my all time favourite blocks, the bear paw, and upsize it. I was sitting on the couch playing with the pattern placement when our son sat down beside me and put his little hand in mine. It melted my heart. It also gave me an idea for the quilt.

I stopped trying to set the blocks in a grid formation and thought about a Mumma Bear and her cub walking through the forrest. I thought about the little cub putting his paw in the paw print left by his Mother as she walks ahead. Always wanting to keep up and grow up too soon.

I wanted there to be multiple instances of tracks, like it was a place they come to often because it would give a chance to play around with placement and movement in the quilt.

This was the second quilt I ever “designed” and it was a huge learning curve. It was also the first time I worked with linen and that was an adventure in and of itself. The linen paired perfectly with Alison Glass’ line “Handcrafted” which is all batiks. 

It was the first time I’d been brave enough to use batiks and they were so lush and fun. I love the variation in the printing process that makes it look like dappled light. I fussy cut the flying geese print to provide more interest and detail in the big blocks.

This isn’t a small quilt, it’s 80″+ squared and it’s heavy. It’s divine! The linen is so amazingly soft and cuddly. (Although it does tend to crease a little more than usual, but it comes out once the quilt is draped on the bed.)

I explained my harebrained idea for the quilt design to Raylee (of Sunflower Quilting) and she used it to find the perfect edge-to-edge pattern for the quilt. It looks like leaves and berries all over the forrest floor.

I used 2 prints from the Handcrafted range for the binding and I love the effect that splicing one print in for a little bit gives it. I also love the little hints of colour that the crosses provide as they move around the binding.  It’s backed in a print from Ikea that was given to me by my Sister-in-Law and her family for Christmas a couple of years ago and it’s so perfect, both for the details in the print and that it’s got a family connection.

I really adore this quilt for a number of reasons and while it didn’t come out totally the way I’d planned (my original sketch had it at 100″+) I love that it’s so personal to me and that curling up under it is like being enveloped in a big bear hug.

The pattern is available in Handmade Magazine’s Quilting Edition (Issue number 33-10) which was released a couple of months ago.