Before I moved out of my parents’ house, I had a fantastic sewing room set up with my mom. We had our machines side by side in the basement, facing the TV… with the ironing board and a cutting station nearby. It was a great space for us to create together.
When I eventually moved out into an apartment, I realized just how much space I took for granted! I went from sharing a house with my parents to sharing a one-bedroom apartment with my husband… and it took a lot of adjusting! I have a single, two-person table that I use for both cutting and sewing – I have to move my machine out of the way each time. I don’t have much room for fabric storage, so some of it is stashed up in a closet (out of sight, out of mind). So naturally, I went into a bit of a creative drought. But this quilt brought me out of it!
Fabric: Random brightly-coloured fat quarters
Pattern: Disappearing 9-Patch
Started/Finished: Summer 2017
I had been training at my CrossFit gym for almost a full year, and was participating in a weekly mindset/motivation group with some other likeminded gym friends. One of the participants happened to be expecting a baby that summer, and all of a sudden it dawned on me – I could make her a quilt!!
I sneakily asked around to see if she was having a boy or a girl, although it didn’t really matter. Pink, flowery quilts aren’t exactly my style anyway! I wanted to go with something bright, with lots of patterns and contrast. I originally meant for this to be a stash-busting quilt, but I think only three of the fat quarters actually came from my stash. Whoops!
I love the explosive randomness of a Disappearing 9-Patch quilt, and it’s so, so easy to put together! I have plans to make a few more; maybe I’ll turn one of them into a tutorial!
The mama-to-be is a ray of sunshine in human form, so I wanted this quilt to reflect her own personality as well. I went with sunny yellow minky on the back, and a bright lime green polka dot binding.
This quilt inspired me to continue creating – even if it’s just baby quilts for gym members! I’ve since claimed a corner of our apartment to be my permanent sewing space, and you can bet I’m planning an epic sewing room when we finally move to Texas!
