Today has been a long time coming! I actually released this pattern in my shop MONTHS ago, but with a new baby on board, this beauty missed it’s official pattern release. So today I am proud to present to you (again):
The Story
I just love quilts that tell a story, don’t you? Whether it’s make-believe or as true as they come, I just love a good story.
Midnight Escape is one of those quilts. The name itself sparks the imagination and gives a song and dance to these abstracted little fireflies escaping their tipped over mason jars.
The Process
This quilt has been stored in my mind for a long time, just waiting for the perfect shape to give life to these little fireflies. I was inspired by a chairty quilt that I saw at QuiltCon (it was really nothing like this in hindsight…just the movement of the abstracted piecing reminded me of a swarm of escaping fireflies)
I really wanted this simple quilt to be simple when being viewed and constructed. After years of filing the idea away with a little sketch, I sat down and decided to give it a try! The fun part about this one is that I actually served the idea to my pattern testers, got their votes, and the design evolved between all of us!
It started out with an ombre rounder shape that was too bee-like and a four patch the just wasn’t quite exciting enough…after a bit of confusion about bees, dragonflies, and fireflies…I decided a combination of the two mock ups was the answer and I felt a burst of excitement as my testers heartily agreed that we had found it!
I love collaboration…it’s such a fun feeling to work on something as a team!
The Details
I’m a sucker for the details! Typically I plan out the quilt top and not much more when designing, but for this quilt, the quilting was one of the very first details that I had figured out – long before the block design was even formed!
…and to be honest, this quilt is pretty boring until all that hand-stitched love is added!
My colors were 100% based on this fabric that I had found a few years ago at my local quilt shop…I just couldn’t get past it! I obviously HAD to incorporate this for the backing and binding and pulled all my firefly colors on the front from here.
The Rush
Now, you may have seen this quilt before in my Honest Swap post, a blog post about my baby quilt swap with Longarmer, Karlee Porter. You see, Karlee and I were due about 1 month apart: she was due with her second son and I was due with my second daughter. We thought it would be a fun idea to swap quilts around our due dates and I’m so glad we did! Like I said, I’ve had the idea stashed away for quite some time and was thrilled to blow the dust off of it and really form the concept. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving!
This quilt was a joy to make and I’d love to make it again (especially since I gave it away!). I hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy all my pattern testers versions and appreciate all the hard work that they do to get these patterns into your hands!
Midnight Escape Now Available!
Inspiration Photos
Midnight Escape Now Available!
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