I’ve been planning this quilt since August 2021 – at least, that is the creation date of my design file. I’ve created this one from scratch, designing the pattern, working out the fabric requirements, editing it for different dimensions and then choosing the fabric. The quilt was finally commissioned as a sofa cover back in March 2023 and I completed it last week having worked on it on and off since the summer.

Design notes

I started designing in Adobe Illustrator, making a grid of squares that I then filled with colour. Once I’d created a motif, based on Nelson’s Victory block (from memory, it was a while ago!), it was a matter of tweaking the repeats to make the pattern my own. Originally, the quilt was to be square, but to fit the sofa I knocked off a pattern repeat. The quilt is based on ‘jelly roll’ style blocks – 2½” squares sewn with quarter inch seams resulting in 2″ finished squares. There were a ridiculous amount of half-square triangles, which are a pain to cut, join and chew through a load of fabric, but are so effective in use.

As far as constructing the topper is concerned, I ended up doing it a couple of ways. Initially, I made individual blocks and joined them together in rows. The last two blocks rotate depending on the required configuration:

I did the second half laying out the squares in full rows, layering the half-square triangles and daisy-chain sewing them. I think this worked out quicker, though was a little more prone to joining mistakes.

The topper fabric is 100% cotton from The Bramble Patch. I’d chosen some based on website pics, but in person the colours were not true and I had some help choosing the grey. I’d taken a sample of the room’s wallpaper with me to double-check as well. A salutory tale about online purchasing and colour reproduction restrictions of RGB monitors. The backing and 80/20 wadding is from Fabric Guild.

The quilting is on the borders of the blue/white borders and around the diamonds in the main blocks. The final size is 44″x68″.

It looks great in situ: