Here’s a bit of a journey to share on the development of this latest pattern. A few years ago (like more than 10!) we had a quilting group in our then church that made quilts for all the new babies in the congregation . There were years when we had a bumper crop and could hardly keep up. But we did find some time to do some other quilts for other causes as well. One year we sent a bunch of quilts to some volunteers in Romania for their living quarters . They volunteered in an orphanage.
We had wanted to send baby quilts for the orphanage but were told that they don’t cover the babies with blankets . While this was a hard thing to comprehend by our North American standards, we understood and chose to bless their ministry another way.
We also had two ladies at that Church who were the kitchen volunteers and faithfully served us delicious food for ALL the monthly church luncheons and special events . Our quilting group wanted to recognize their faithful service and bless them, so two of us in the group made them these quilts. Mine was called Corn and Beans in Provence . The title seemed appropriate for a cook. This was all the way back in 2008!
It was so named because of the Provencal fabrics. Look familiar? This was the basis of my design for Polka Dot Party. I created the original pattern but never published it. I was asked by one of my local quilt guilds to provide a mystery quilt for them. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided that this was a good, simple and quick choice.
I then started play in EQ8 to get the pattern drafted. I wrote the mystery in three steps and the finale was published this past Monday. The ladies in the guild and in another facebook group are busy finishing their quilts. Here’s mine:
I also volunteered to contribute a free quilt pattern to APQS for their October blog post so it all seemed to fall into place.
This pattern is FREE in my store (link on the main page) and will be published by APQS later this month.
We are using the hashtags #polkadotpartymysteryquilt and #polkadotpartyquilt (for those not doing it as a mystery). I am looking forward to seeing all the different quilts.
Thanks for following this rabbit trail (ahem … journey) with me. If you’re a pattern designer, what is your inspiration? Do you get dreams about quilts and draft them from what you envisioned? Do you spot something in nature and use that as a launchpad for your own interpretation? Do you see a bundle of fat quarters and know exactly what you want to do with them? For me this time, I really, really wanted to play with polka dots and remembered my Corn and Beans quilt and married the two together.
Until next time,
Mavis
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