This design started with me trying to figure out how to do a "cheater" double cross-hatch design without making the rows match up perfectly. Brittany of Lo and Behold Stitchery featured this quilt, where she did the double cross-hatch quilting on her domestic machine, and I thought it would be great to have an alternative edge-to-edge design for longarm quilters that wasn't too difficult to execute, since cross-hatching is infamous for being hard to line up.

For a single-line cross-hatch version, I'm biased, but I think it's tough to beat the Rumble design with a 50% offset on a quilt loaded sideways. Here's what it looks like:



But, back to the double cross-hatch inspo!

I came up with a super simple repeatable design that wouldn't have to be lined up exactly because the rows wouldn't have to touch. I stitched out a small sample:

Before I put more work into preparing the design for release, I uploaded a photo to Google Lens to check for visual similarities. Several designs ...

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...