My Quilting Tattoo

A few days ago, I did something I've wanted to do for a long time! Here's a sneak peek before I share the whole story 😊

Eleven years ago, Paul and I got matching tattoos to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Up until deciding to do that, rather spur of the moment, I had never even considered getting a tattoo. When we went in, the tattoo artist asked which of us was going first and I said I would, because I was worried that if it looked like it hurt a lot I would chicken out! 

Sometime after that, maybe a year or two later, I started thinking I'd like to have a quilting tattoo. For a while it was just a vague, maybe someday kind of thought. Then I started feeling more and more like I wanted to make it happen. Problem was, I couldn't decide what I wanted! There are so many great sewing tattoos out there! Vintage sewing machines, quilt blocks, thread spools, needle and thread, scissors... On and on the choices go, and I couldn't settle on anything. I love the idea of a vintage sewing machine, but I don't sew on one, and, while I love my Janome 6700, it's not really tattoo material. I spent years collecting ideas on Pinterest, but that was as far as it went.

My other hold-up was I didn't know who to have do it. The guy who did our tattoos in 2014 had moved away, so I couldn't go back to him. Then a friend had a full sleeve of tattoos done and the work was gorgeous, so I asked her for the recommendation.

Back in June I took the plunge and reached out to her tattoo artist, Lawrence, and booked an appointment for September 30. When he asked what I wanted, I sent him a whole Drive folder full of inspiration and ideas, hoping he could turn it into something coherent. The only things I knew for sure were that it would be on my right forearm and I wanted a line of hexies that wrapped around my arm. I loved the shape of this vine tattoo, so I sent that along with a picture of some hexies lined up on a table.

Beyond that, I told him 'maybe include a needle and thread, or a spool of thread, or a hexie flower' with pictures of all the options so he would know what I meant. He said we'd meet before my appointment to go over what I wanted, and then I settled in to wait for the end of September.

The week before my appointment, I emailed him to check in, and he said, "I just finished reviewing your ideas..all good….we don’t need to meet for this…I’ll have this stuff put together for ya for Tuesday." What??? I wanted to see what he was making out of the mess of ideas I had sent, lol. Waiting those last couple of days was tough!

When I arrived on Tuesday, he had a bunch of drawings printed out and we sat down to build the plan. He had a couple of options for the line of hexies, bigger and smaller, connected or not. I chose the smaller hexies and connected, so it looked like they were sewn together. Once I could see how much space the hexies would take up on my arm, I opted to skip the spool of thread and the hexie flower, going with just a needle and thread.

He started with the line of hexies, wrapping them from just above my wrist to my elbow. Tattoos are done with a transfer of some sort that puts the lines on the skin so the tattoo artist can follow the lines with the ink. This picture shows the transfer, before he went over it with the ink.

Once the hexies were outlined, he added the transfer for the needle where we wanted it, then picked up a Sharpie and literally drew the path of the thread freehand. No wonder we didn't need to meet ahead of time! He wasn't satisfied with the first couple of tries, so he erased those with rubbing alcohol and tried again until he was satisfied. Once he was happy with how it covered the space around the hexies he sent me to look in a mirror to be sure I was happy with it, then inked it all. I asked if the thread could be blue (of course!), but he recommended sticking with black because the colour inks are a thicker consistency and aren't as good for thin lines. In this picture, the hexies are outlined, the needle is partially done, and you can see the Sharpie line for the thread.

Once the needle and thread were done, it was time to add the colour! I chose pink, purples, blues, and teal. He suggested having another warm colour, so we added yellow. It was so much fun to watch the hexies come to life as he worked his way up my arm! Filling in shapes is more painful than outlining is, though, so by the time he was getting to the end of the line I was definitely ready to be done.

The last thing he did was add a tiny bit of white to give the needle some shine, which I hadn't even considered, but is a great little detail.

When he was done and I could go to the mirror again, I couldn't stop twisting my arm around and grinning! I am thrilled with how it turned out!

The next afternoon I set up my phone and took a little video to show it off. You can see the video on Instagram. These pictures are taken from the video because I completely forgot to take pictures like this, so they're not the clearest, but they give you an idea how it looks when you're seeing all of me, not just closeups.

I did take closeup pictures after recording the video. The hexies look kind of textured, but that's just because it was fresh and the skin needs to heal. They'll look smooth once the healing is done. That can take weeks, though, and I'm too excited to wait that long to share it.

Seeing it makes me ridiculously happy. As a friend pointed out, that's a good thing, considering I'll be looking at it for a very long time 😆 

Someone else pointed out that a lot of people probably won't understand what it is, which is true, especially if they don't notice the needle. It's not the most obvious quilting reference, but I think quilters will recognize it, even if they've never done EPP themselves. Whether they do or not, I know what it is.

As we were driving home on Tuesday, Paul asked if I'd go back to Lawrence again. 

I said, "Yes, absolutely." 

"Are you planning to get more?" he asked. I just laughed. I have no plans for more tattoos, but I have heard they're addictive, so who knows? Haha!

Do you have a quilting tattoo? Or would you consider getting one?

8 Point Meadow in Make Modern

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It has been a while since I had a quilt published in Make Modern magazine (I think the last one was Illusion, back in January of 2023), so I'm excited to say I have a baby quilt in the brand new issue that was just published. Meet 8 Point Meadow!

Okay, as far as quilt names go, that's not one of the greats 😆 Why is naming quilts so hard?? I came up with 8 Point Meadow because the star block is called 8 Point Star in EQ8 and, with the green background, the pink, purple, orange, and yellow stars reminded me of wildflowers.

I think this was the first time I made a quilt with the blocks on point. I love how it changes the whole look of the block. Here's the block set normally; it looks straighter and less interesting, somehow. 

But tip it 45° and it looks more dynamic. 

The star points are paper pieced. I know it's possible to piece that unit traditionally, but I really like the simplicity and accuracy of paper piecing it. Of course, I used freezer paper for the paper piecing, so I didn't have to remove the paper from the blocks when they were finished (it's the only way I paper piece!). You can learn this magic, too!

I don't have a lot of pink, purple, yellow, or orange fabrics in my stash, but I was able to pull enough for this baby quilt without repeating any.

For the quilting, I chose not to quilt the star points at all. They're outlined and the whole background is quilted with a dense, loopy meander, which really makes the stars pop. They show up beautifully on the back, too.

The loopy meander quilting always makes me think of eyelet lace for some reason. It gives the quilt fantastic texture, too.

I wanted the stars to be the sole focus, so I used the same green for the binding and the background. Now that I think about it, I could also have done a facing to achieve the same effect, but I never think of that. Binding is just automatic.

For the pattern for 8 Point Meadow, along with 9 other projects and some great columns, get your copy of Make Modern issue 66. Or subscribe to get 6 issues a year, all of them full of inspiration and eye candy 😊 Make Modern is celebrating their 11th birthday, so subscribers get a fun bonus pattern, too!

Showstoppers Quilt

I love getting to share a new scrappy pattern with the Stash Artists members every other month! For the September pattern, I designed a fat quarter-friendly pattern called Showstoppers.

There are so many things I love about this quilt! First, the big, bold flower blocks. They make me think of the biggest, showiest flowers in the garden, which is how the quilt got its name.

Then there's the shape of the negative space around the flowers. I love the curvy diamond shape on each side, but more than that, I love the way the four curvy diamonds around a flower seem to create the illusion of a larger black shape behind the flower. Can you see that?

And then there's the partial flower blocks that create the border around the full blocks. They give the quilt a more interesting look than if the quilt were entirely made of full flower blocks. I made the baby quilt, and the pattern includes instructions for throw and queen size, both of which also have the partial blocks on the edges.

If you're not comfortable sewing curved seams yet, I have a tutorial for how to sew Drunkard's Path blocks. I promise they're not as scary as they look!

That being said, something was going crazy in the sewing room when I sewed mine because every single one turned out wonky. Every. Single. One. There was no way I was redoing them, so I eased in fulness as needed and there were a few ¼" seams that weren't as precise as usual as I assembled the blocks. The blocks turned out surprisingly well, though, and then I didn't need to fudge things much to put the quilt top together. I've always said I could never be a carpenter because there's no 'easing in' when you're working with wood. Fabric, on the other hand, is quite forgiving! And remember, finished is better than perfect 😊

The folks at The Warm Company sent me a shipment of Warm and Natural batting recently (it's my favourite!), and this was the first quilt made with the new batting. Yes, I still have an abundance of batting scraps, but they're all pretty small now and I was getting tired of piecing multiple scraps together for everything. I have a plan for a series (or two!) of mini quilts next year, though, and those scraps will be perfect for that.

I wanted to use black solid for the back of the quilt, but didn't have enough. I did have enough navy, though, and that was neutral enough for me. Especially on a scrap quilt, I don't feel like the back has to be a perfect match. 

As a bonus, the navy does a nice job of showing off the purple quilting thread! With so many colours on the front, ranging from black to almost-white, it was hard to choose a thread colour for the quilting. Black was out, because it would be too dark on the light fabrics. White, beige, and light grey were all out because they'd be too light on the black. I tested teals, blues, pinks, medium greys, and purples (all Aurifil 50 wt), and 4225 (Eggplant) ended up being my favourite. As you've probably noticed in the pictures, the purple does show up, but there was really no way to avoid that unless I switched thread for every flower and the background, which didn't fit the all-over quilting I wanted to do.

I chose an all-over flowery meander, which makes me think of the smaller flowers in the garden. It felt like the perfect complement to the big flower blocks.

We went to the beach Friday for one last picnic supper before school started, and I wandered around taking pictures of Showstoppers while Paul barbecued. I love the light in this picture.

If you love scrappy quilts as much as I do, join the Stash Artists waiting list to be notified when the membership doors open again later in the fall. 

What colour would the background of your Showstoppers quilt be? I'd love to see it with a white background or a pale green. This is one of the many, many reasons I love quilting - there's always another option you could try, even when making the same pattern again!