Jaybird Pattern Review – Lotus

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 Marci of Marci Girl Designs. Marci has *tons* of amazing quilty finishes to show on her blog, so go take a look!

Hi, Marci here and I want to start with thanking Sara for hosting such a great sew along, and by thanking Julie for designing such an awesome pattern and wonderful ruler! I was beyond thrilled when asked to participate in this sew along, mostly because I had been interested in Jaybird Quilts patterns and rulers for quite a while, but had never taken the time to give them a try. I am happy to say that now I have tried them both, and am SOLD! I don’t know why I didn’t try them earlier.

My pattern for the blog hop is Lotus, which uses the Hex N More Ruler. You don’t have to have the ruler to use the pattern, as Julie includes the two needed templates, but trust me, the ruler makes it so much easier, especially since the entire pattern is the “jewel” shape and 60 degree triangles. The ruler makes cutting both of these shapes a breeze!

Basically you cut a strip of fabric, per the pattern instructions, line up the ruler with the correct lines, cut the right side, flip the ruler, cut the left side and you have the perfect “jewel” shape. You just continue cutting the desired number of pieces, and voila, it is that simple. One of the things I loved about this pattern is that the scraps created from this shape are perfect 60 degree triangles, which you can save for later and have a triangle quilt ready to piece! You can see those triangles in the photo below. I just loved that added bonus, nothing wasted!

Before I show off my quilt, I just want to spend a minute bragging about what a genius Julie really is. No, I have never met her, never had a conversation with her either, so this is just my honest unbiased opinion. I received the pattern and ruler and immediately tore them open and read the pattern cover to cover. The thing that impressed me the most were the VERY clear illustrations, no doubting what is going to take place, clear as day. The second is the design of the pattern. I just love when a designer has the forethought to include instructions on how to iron the seams, so that the whole thing just comes together so smoothly. Nice nestled seams that make the sewing process that much easier. I honestly think the instructions are so clearly written that a confident beginner can easily make this quilt. Also, this is the first quilt that I have ever made from a pattern that came out to the exact finished size it was supposed to be, so awesome. Oh and don’t forget the ruler, it is large, way larger than I expected, which is great because this means you can cut so many sizes from it. Along with the numerous sizes, are the amount of shapes you can cut, you can cut out 4 different shapes with this ruler. Why buy a 60 degree triangle ruler by itself, when you can buy this one ruler and the triangle is just one of the shapes you can cut with it. I am thoroughly impressed. OK, enough raving, onto the quilt!

Here it is, my totally finished Lotus quilt. I am just pleased as punch with it. This quilt started with a very distinct color palette (obviously) and then I just chose a simple matching off white and gray solid for the triangles. Each of the fourteen prints are featured twice, and there are quite a few Art Gallery prints, so this quilt has such a nice smooth feeling to it. I made the Lap sized quilt, which measures 52″ x 60.” The perfect snuggling size! I was able to cut this quilt out in just a few hours, and then pieced it in about a day. It is really rewarding to have a finished quilt top so quickly.

The time I saved piecing the quilt gave me more time to be adventurous with my quilting. This quilt features large cuts of fabric, so I knew all along I would be able to quilt a really cool motif in each “jewel.” Another one of the things that is so neat about the Lotus pattern was that it included two different pictures of quilts that had been quilted by Angela Walters, so I was able to get ideas from these quilts and in the end I decided to channel my inner Angela Walters and go for it! Let me start by saying that I have never quilted like this before, ever. Yeah I have done some simple free motion quilting, flowers, swirls, that sort of thing, but nothing like this. Oh and I also have to say that instead of practicing first on a quilt sandwich, I just went for it on the actual quilt, no practicing for me. Was this a good idea? Probably not, but honestly it worked out ok. I started by quilting the above motif in the “jewels” that featured a busy print, thus if I made a mistake, you couldn’t really tell. This worked really well and I just kept going, improving over time and in the end I was ready to tackle the prints that weren’t so busy. The photo above is an example of this “improvement” over time. I used a variegated from Aurifil Threads in a 40 weight, which I think was a great choice because the thread shows just enough without being overpowering. I also want to give credit and thanks to the author of the book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces by Judi Madsen, because the motif is based on one of her designs from the book.

Once I was finished with all of the “jewels,” I moved onto the triangles. I will say here I blatantly copied Angela Walters stitches on the Lotus quilt cover. I just loved what she had done and decided to attempt to copy her design, which in the end I changed up a bit, so it isn’t identical. I naively thought for some reason this was going to be the “easy” part. Boy was I wrong. Those triangles probably took just as much time as the “jewels” and as I slowly started running out of thread, the more nervous I became. In the end, I did have enough thread to finish (almost used a whole spool, which is 1092 yards!) I have to say that all the extra effort I put into quilting this quilt, made it all worth it in the end because the texture created feels just so great and I am proud to say that I tackled such a difficult quilting pattern, all on my home machine, no longarm in sight here!

The back of this quilt was supposed to be that one Art Gallery fabric, but alas I was 1/4 yard too short, and had to figure out another plan. In the Lotus pattern you construct large triangles, piece them into rows, and then in the end trim those rows, so you are left with some large 1/2 triangle scraps. Be it that they are so large, I decided to piece them together, then framed them with some of my leftover gray yardage and created a “picture” of sorts framed on the back of the quilt. I think this was a good solution and a great use for those leftover scraps from the front of the quilt.

I used one of the prints as the binding fabric for the quilt, as I just wanted the binding to blend in and not really stand out. In conclusion, I am thrilled with the finished quilt, which will be gifted soon to someone special in my life. Thanks again to both Sara and Julie, and I can honestly say that this will not be my last Jaybird Quilts. It was just too fun and rewarding not to make another!