Well, this is embarrassing! For the second time in a month (here's a link to the first time), I found myself inspired by a Quilty Love pattern, and dropped everything to make it because I wanted to use a new panto inspired by the patchwork. More about the pattern in a bit.

Let's talk about the digital panto first, shall we? As you can see, it's a ridiculously simple design combining a clamshell with a heart. It's not earth-shattering, but it is exactly what I wanted for this quilt! 



This design is all about balance. The heart shape is "held" suspended at the center of each clamshell, giving it a little space to shine on its own.

The scale of the heart in relation to the clamshell is giving dainty cuteness! On this quilt, that's the same vibe as the little 9-patches in the alternate blocks, which are so adorable.



As an edge-to-edge design, there's a cascading effect across the quilt, which I find nice. I say this all of the time, but I love the texture that simple, repeated ...

Before we get started, I'd like to get the theme music for Game of Thrones in your head while you read this blog post.
 


I thought this spin on a classic clamshell shape looked a lot like dragon scales, but when it came to naming it, 'Dragon' didn't feel right. So, I spent approximately 10 hours (only a slight exaggeration) using ChatGPT to come up with a name. "We" were going for Mother of Dragons energy, but also kind of soft and nature-inspired. In the end, I thought Embercrest sounded like it could have been a house in Game of Thrones. Naming things is hard! 🔥



I love using simple shapes to create texture-rich backgrounds for quilts, and that's what I hope to have done with this design. It would be a great, jazzy alternative to a traditional clamshell quilting for quilts that need just a little extra flare. 

The Quilt

Quilt Pattern

The pattern I used for this quilt is called Simple Joys by Then Came June. It went together quickly and was fun to make at a recent retreat...

Hello friends! I'm showcasing a bundle for you today. Instead of narrowing a variety of clamshell designs down to one, I've bundled them together so that you can have many options!

There are FOUR edge-to-edge designs included in the Clamour bundle:
Cat
Line
Dash
Bump


All of this started because the Des Moines flag inspired me. I live in the Des Moines metro area, and the flag below represents bridges in the city. I created a few simple clamshell shapes designed to have some spacing between the clamshells, one with a line traveling under the clamshells (or on top if you'd like to flip it vertically like bunting) and one with a short line between. In the bundle, these are represented by Line and Dash.

From there, I stumbled upon a variation that looked like cute cat heads in a simple and easy stitch path, so I knew I needed to include it too. We have a cat-friendly (cat-laden?) household, if you haven't met me yet. 👋

Let's talk about the Cat option now, because that's what I ...