CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE

When the lovely Kristy from Make Modern approached me about submitting something for one of their upcoming issues I was blown away. I couldn’t believe that they would want something of mine in their wonderful magazine.

I jumped at the chance, and then the panic set in. What was I going to make?

I submitted an idea and was convinced that it would get reject, but when Kristy came back and said they’d love to see it I was blown away again and then panicked some more.

I guess I really had to make my own design now that they’d said they’d like to see it. I’d had this idea for my version of a patchwork star floating around in my head since the first round of Sewvivor; a guiding star.

I had envisioned it a little differently in my head and I’m still toying with doing this in solids and putting a different emphasis on certain blocks, but I’m totally smitten with how this version of my pattern has come together.

In the past few months I’ve been going through and using the fabrics in my stash that I adore and have been holding on to for a “special occasion”. I’ve come to the conclusion that every day is a special occasion and I should just use the fabric – if anything ever happens to me I just know HUBBY will give it all away or use it for rags so I’d better get cracking on using it.

I had this print by Anna Maria Horner (Field Study, Raindrops Poppies in Candy)  and I knew I just had to use it.

I just love the vibrancy of the print and the colour combination is totally not something that I think would work, but it just does. I guess that’s the genius of Anna Maria Horner.

I teamed it with three shades of purple from Kona Cotton. I wanted to give a graduated colour drawing the eye into the centre (hence the name of the quilt – “Centre of the Universe” – because all things point to the star in the middle).

After seeing Happy Spider’s Modern Medallion I knew I had to use Zen Chic’s Barcelona City Map in Cream for the background of this quilt.

I love the added texture that the print provides to this quilt and I also like the subtle nod to Canberra that this print has (it’s all about the roundabouts). It also makes another nice play on the name of the quilt because Canberra is the centre of the universe for the government of Australia.

I was lucky enough to have Gemma (of Pretty Bobbins) do an edge-to-edge on this quilt using a pattern called “Midnight Sparkle” (which I joked would be my Drag Queen name if I had one). I like the contrast that the swirls give and I’m really crushing on the stars that are hidden in this pattern.

Given the amount of negative space on this quilt it would be so much fun for someone who’s fabulous with free motion quilting, although a great straight line quilting pattern would also make it sing.

The quilt finishes at 60″ x 60″ which is a great size for snuggling under on the couch. This is the first quilt I’ve backed in a flannel and it feels wonderful, so wonderful in fact that I plan on backing more quilts in flannel.

I had so much fun working on this quilt and I’m so proud of the fact that it’s in Make Modern.

This is my favourite image of the quilt. I love the softness of the quilt on the orange and then the reflection of it in the window.  I just love it.

Issue 3 of Make Modern is available now – you can order it by clicking here – and should you make a your own “Centre of the Universe” be sure to let me know as I’d love to see it and share it with everyone and anyone. As an added bonus, I’m also their “Meet the Maker” for Issue 3, so if you’d like to read a little bit more about why I do what I do then be sure to check it out.