Introducing the Waterlilies Quilt
Here she is, quilters!
The Waterlilies Quilt pattern is available to buy as a digital download from my pattern shop!
Waterlilies is my first official pattern so I’m very excited to share it with you. It’s a big moment in my quilting journey and has taken a year to come to fruition. Let me tell you the story behind it…
SPRING 2020
In May 2020, I sketched an idea for the waterlilies block on some graph paper and coloured it with my kids’ pens. The world was a different place then. We were in the middle of the first wave of an unexpected global pandemic. The UK was in its first strict lockdown: we could only leave our house once a day for exercise or essential shopping. Schools were closed and I was finding it really hard to educate, entertain and mother my 6- and 9-year-old girls at home, all day, every day. I was exhausted but was still sewing a little, mainly to take my mind off things and feel more normal.
I couldn’t teach in-person workshops so my business was effectively closed. I wasn’t ready at that time to switch to online teaching as I did later in the year. Instead, I sat and wondered what would happen to Cowden Quilt School. It felt like the end until I started sketching ideas. I could barely think beyond the next 12 hours, so I had no intention then of designing quilt patterns. But the image of a waterlily made up of geometric shapes was stuck in my head. I had to figure out how I to make it with fabric as a patchwork quilt.
I did some basic quilt maths to work out how much fabric I’d need to make a test block and started cutting and sewing. To be honest, that first test was too chunky to resemble a delicate flower like a waterlily so I felt disheartened and put it aside for a while.
autumn 2020
Fast forward to a few months later and I saw that Amber Elliot of Alderwood Studio was planning to start teaching quilters how to design patterns. I wondered if this could be an opportunity since the pandemic was dragging on and I still wasn’t able to teach in-person in England. I already had the waterlilies idea that I could work on during the course and, hopefully, Amber would teach me the rest. And that’s exactly what she did! She also organised everyone taking part, across the world, into small peer groups. The connections I made through the peer groups I was part of here in the UK and in Europe have been worth their weight in gold. I’ll share more about them in my next blog post when I’ll be show-casing the amazing quilters who tested this pattern with me and made the most beautiful versions.
winter 2020/21
With the Pattern Writing Academy under my belt, I cut my pattern writing teeth with a simple design for a baby-size quilt, designed especially for beginners. The Rainbow Railings Quilt launched in January, exclusively for my newsletter subscribers, just as England entered a third national lockdown. Schools closed again so I was busy home-schooling my children before I could finally finish the Waterlilies Quilt pattern. The wait was frustrating, but it gave time to tweak and improve the design before sending it out for testing.
I’ve been so lucky to work with 10 talented quilters to test every aspect of the pattern to make sure it’s just right for you. Their experience and feedback has been invaluable and gave me the boost I need to get this pattern over the finish line.
SPRING 2021
Now the Waterlilies Quilt pattern is all yours and I want to share the things I love about this design as a modern quilter:
The Waterlilies block creates the unmistakable shape of a waterlily without the need for English or Foundation Paper Piecing techniques – just regular machine piecing.
The blocks look great made with solid fabrics, prints or both! Scraps work equally well and a dark background fabric gives a dramatic twist on the design that looks stunning.
The blocks are so easy to make! Each one is a simple 4x4 grid of squares and half-square triangles with sashing added on two sides.
Setting the blocks on-point is the secret ingredient that transforms the quilt blocks into a peaceful patchwork pond of flowers.
On-point quilts need extra triangles around the edges and in the corners to complete the quilt top. These ‘setting’ triangles and ‘corner’ triangles are bias-cut and great for confident beginners to learn new techniques.
The quilt top has lots of ‘negative’ space which is such a positive for quilting! There’s so much scope for being super creative with quilting designs, especially for free-motion quilting and hand quilting techniques.
I can’t wait to see your version of the Waterlilies Quilt. Please share it on social media using the hashtags #waterliliesquilt and #cqspattern and tagging @cowdenquiltschool.
Kathleen x