Jaybird Pattern Review – Daybreak

This post is part of the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along. For schedule of guest post pattern reviews, prizes, and contest rules, click here. Today’s guest post is from Lee of May Chappell. Lee is a quilt teacher and pattern designer; you can find her patterns right here!

Hello there! Lee here, I usually blog over at May Chappell about my adventures in quilting, pattern writing & teaching! I was pretty excited when Sara invited me to join in this sew along! I was already a fan of Jaybird Quilts and I’ve been wanting to make another one of her patterns! I got to make Daybreak. It calls for the Hex ‘n More & the Sidekick ruler. You can use the templates, but that’s just crazy talk! Buy the rulers and save yourself days of cutting. I’m not usually a specialty ruler person, but these rulers are versatile! They’re not just for this project. You’ll use them over and over!

The pattern cover isn’t really my style of fabric, but I LOVED the shapes!! I decided to pull from my stash. I wanted bright candy colors. (In my head, I called this The Candy Blossom quilt!) I’m a sucker for bright beautiful rainbow bundles and I’ve bought a million of them (mostly from Westwood Acres; Amanda is a bundle making ninja and master of awesome bundles). I keep them in baskets and I’m totally guilty of not cutting into them because they’re so pretty!

These are what I chose!

Once I got started cutting, I was once again rewarded by the genius of Julie Herman with the Hex ‘n More ruler. It’s so versatile! It’s well made and non slippy.

I used LOTS of starch on this project. Anytime you’re cutting angles that aren’t 90 degrees, starch is your friend. I starched before I cut and at each step of piecing.

First I cut all the jewel shapes. It’s basically the shape you’d get if a hexagon and a triangle had a baby.

And all my diamonds. Then I chose my background! I wanted something with a little pattern, but not too much so the colors could shine! This print from Carolyn Friedlander Botanics was the winner!

I cut my diamonds with the Sidekick ruler as instructed. The markings are crystal clear and it’s easy to get crisp accurate cuts! There are wonderful illustrations of each step of the cutting process. It’s very clear and while it might seem overwhelming to a beginner, anyone with good rotary skills is capable of cutting all the shapes.

I did notice that the markings are on the Hex ‘n More to cut diamonds. There aren’t labels for diamonds, but you can use the 2 1/2″ jewel markings to make a 2 1/2″ diamond. You’ll have to have vision as they aren’t marked fully. If you did this, you would only need the Hex ‘n More for this pattern.

Next up was cutting triangles from the background fabric. The pattern shows using the Hex ‘n More ruler and mentions that the Sidekick will also work. I used both to test it out. The Sidekick was much easier! It’s smaller and was easier to flip. However, if you only have the Hex ‘n More on hand, you’ll be in good shape!

There are lots of triangles!! (At this point, I considered renaming this quilt, The Quilt with a Million Triangles!) I made the lap size which called for 450 triangles.

I tested out putting a third color of triangles in the center of each blossom, but ultimately I decided on background fabric, as the pattern is written.

All of the cutting took me about half a day. Not too shabby considering all the pieces and angles. It’s finally time to sew! The first step is sewing a jewel to a triangle. It’s easier to sew bias to bias OR grain to grain. This step is bias to grain. I found putting the triangle (the bias edge) on the bottom closest to the feed dogs made it easier. I’m a non pinner, but pins might also help!

They’re so pretty!! I found sewing all of each step and then moving to the next shape to be the most efficient. That’s how she wrote the pattern and it works great! Her illustrations for each step are super detailed!!

It would be easy to flip a diamond the wrong way or attach a triangle to the wrong side, so I kept stacks oriented the right way next to my machine.

Once the triangle units were made, I needed to pair everything! So many bright fun colors!

The pattern calls for seams to be pressed open. I tried it a few ways and open is the way to go. (Why did I question her genius?!) I’m not usually a fan of open seams but it is flat! And there’s no bulk at the intersections.

If you use directional prints (these ovals are barely directional), you can divide them into two sets of six as you attach them to the jewel. Sew all six of one direction to the right side and the others to the left. I’m a nut about orienting my fabrics;)

For the “sashing”, I used 2″ instead of 1 1/2″ as the pattern calls for. I wanted my quilt a smidge bigger. You’ll need an extra 1/2 yard if you want to do this.

Man oh man are the points perfect on this quilt! I credit this entirely to the awesome directions! They’re so clear and everything is so cleverly pieced, that you can’t help but have a good result!

One thing I did different than the pattern was swap out half of the diamonds between the two sets of jewels for the half blocks on each side. This makes them look a bit more unique.

Finally after two days of piecing, everything was up on the design wall!

I didn’t want an uneven edge, so I considered extending the design. But ultimately I decided to use a piece of background fabric. The shapes were just odd if I cropped the design.

I measured the piece that I needed to add and it was about 6 x 10″. I added seam allowance and a little extra to the width. I cut a rectangle that was 6 1/2 x 10 1/2″ and then cut it in half diagonally using the 30 degree mark on my ruler. I knew these pieces would be just slightly too large and it was easy to trim them once they were sewn in place.

Piecing together the rows went smoothly. This is one part of the pattern where I wish she had an extra illustration. When you piece angles like that, you have to overlap the edges by 1/4″ to get a clean edge. There are so many illustrations in the pattern, that are so clear, that I would’ve expected one. But it really wasn’t a problem! I did pin on this step!!

Here’s my finished quilt top! I’m still deciding on the quilting. Part of me wants to do something really special in each block and part of me thinks an all over design will let the piecing shine!

Overall, it’s a great pattern and I’d highly recommend it. It’s good for a really confident beginner through intermediate. It was so much fun to join in this pattern review series! Thanks to Sara for hosting and Julie for a brilliant pattern! Come on over to my blog for a GIVEAWAY! Word on the street is that it’s a FQ bundle of Pearl Bracelets involved…
xo Lee