Back in May, we did a post that "toured" our Quilt Market booth. One of the quilts we showed you was the "4 Little MonStars" quilt by Rebecca Bryan, an adaptation of a pattern from her Modern Rainbow book, using our Prairie Cloth Cotton Solids. Today we're back with more photos of this cool quilt, as well as the story behind it from Rebecca.
Q. Where did the
MonStar pattern idea come from? And the idea to shrink it down for 4 Little
MonStars?
Rebecca: Initially, I wanted to try a different
approach to the traditional Lone Star quilt pattern. As you make the MonStar
spokes, you start with a small star and keep building until you end up with a
bigger star. Naturally, as I laid out my original MonStar in it's smaller
stages I thought what an adorable little star it was. It'd make a great baby
quilt! For Fabri-Quilt, instead of making 1 little MonStar, I just made 4
little MonStars.
Q. Tell us why you
like using solids so much.
Rebecca: Solids draw me because of their consistent
and simple color. I can't really place why I like using solids so much but I
always have. I recall suggesting to my mother that she use solids in one of her
quilts - maybe it was a dress - when I was small. She turned me down but I
think at that time the options for solids were limited to broad cloth.
Some of my favorite antique quilts use quite
a bit of solids. I have one with a blue solid, one with a pink solid, one with
a green solid, and another with a purple solid. Maybe I just chose those quilts
for their solids!?
Q. Can you talk about
the palette you selected for the Little MonStars quilt?
Rebecca: After having received the color card for
the Fabri-Quilt solids, I took a good look at the colors to get a sense of what
I could work with. Then I hit up my Pinterest color inspiration board. Wanting
to use a bright and funky color scheme, I chose several of my pinned color
schemes. Then I used Adobe Illustrator to sketch up 4 Little MonStars and play
around with the Fabri-Quilt colors. There were probably 8 or 12 different color
schemes I liked - it was hard to only choose 4!
Q. Love the
straight line quilting! Why did you take that approach?
Rebecca: The straight line quilting is both necessary
and decorative in this quilt. I used the straight line quilting to top stitch
each MonStar to the whole cloth background. From there I just continued the
straight line stitching throughout the background.
Q. What advice
would you give to someone interested in this quilt but feeling intimidated?
Rebecca: I'd
say start small! This quilt can be easy and fun, but the larger version can
become a bit unwieldy in that the sizing can easily drift. Don't be
tempted to skip measuring for each border. The measurements keep
the unwieldiness in check!
Q. Can you tell us
a bit about your new Modern Rainbow book and how it came about?
Rebecca: Sure! Thanks for asking! So a few
years ago I was a stay at home mom with my 4 kiddos. My youngest at the time
was just a baby, 6 months old I think. In any case I was quilting and blogging
and I was becoming rather obsessed with it, so much so that I found it hard to
concentrate on anything else. I felt I couldn't settle down.
My mind would wander off into pattern design
and I was annoying myself.
So while at church in early December 2012,
the worship leader asks the congregation if there's anything getting in the way
of worship, anything distracting you, ask the Holy Spirit to help you set that
aside. So I prayed something like "God if there's something you'd like me
to do with this passion for making and quilting, please show me something. If
not, please quiet my mind so I can focus on what you want for me."
That night, or a few nights later, I dreamt
that a friend of mine wrote a book about rainbow quilts. I woke up frustrated
and jealous of my dream friend. I was rather cranky until I realized God had
provided an answer to my prayer. I could write a book about rainbow
quilts.
So with that vision in mind, I set off on my
journey of writing my first book. It was an amazing experience both spiritually
and as a first time author.
Read Rebecca's post on her quilt here.
Find her book here.
