How It All Began - ZigZag Love

It occurs to me that I haven't actually shared ZigZag Love - my first and most popular pattern - on this blog. So, here's a little bit about my quilt. :)

The quilt started out as a bunch of sketches on grid paper back in July 2012. I was playing with hearts and really, the design almost happened by itself. Most unusually for me, the actual making of the quilt happened just days after the design (I have LOTS of sketches waiting to be made into quilts). I had ordered a charm pack of Marmalade by Bonnie & Camille for Moda, and it arrived while the design was fresh in my mind. Perfect! I dug straight in and started sewing that same day.

After a bit of fiddling to figure out which way to press the seams, it was all smooth sailing. After cutting it all out, chain piecing made the sewing pretty quick, and soon after I was laying it out ready to piece the rows. That part took me the longest I think. 'Random' takes so much fiddling to achieve sometimes. ;)

When it came to quilting, I had plans for some free-motion in the zigzags, but I was having trouble seeing white thread on white fabric, so I gave that a miss and stuck with quilting in the ditch, and again about a quarter inch into the zigzags and diamonds. I like the way it turned out, the texture is just right I think. 

I didn't make the quilt with the intention of writing a pattern. It received such an awesome response on Flickr though, with requests for a pattern or tutorial coming from several people, so I decided to give it a go. And now here I am, a couple of years later with several more patterns available and more on the way. 

ZigZag Love remains my most popular pattern, and I get such lovely comments and emails about it from people who have made their own. I am incredibly grateful to each and every one of you who has bought the pattern - thank you a million times over! 

This pattern writing venture of mine would probably never have happened without this little heart quilt, where it all started for me. I hope it continues for a long time yet. 

Thanks so much for visiting, and for your support. Happy Sewing! 

Hope x 

P.S. If you'd like to see the original post on my other blog, When Inspiration Strikes, click here. 

How Did You Quilt That? ZigZag Love

A question I've been asked about my ZigZag Love pattern is how did I quilt in the diamonds? Did I start and stop in each one? Is there a way to do it without stopping and starting? Well, since I've drawn up a little diagram to show how I did it, I thought I'd share it here in case others find it useful.

The travelling in the seams is not really noticeable from the front of the quilt, and looks fine at the back too.

Bye for now, and happy sewing!

Hope x