Want to know the story behind the Birds Hill Quilt? Here we go!
Check out the Birds Hill PDF and Paper Pattern here.
It all started with the 2019 Pantone Quilt Challenge put on by Rebecca from Bryan House Quilts. The challenge was to create a quilt using shades as close as possible to the Pantone shade for that year - which was “Living Coral” in 2019.
As some of you may know, my husband Chris is a graphic designer. Needless to say, we are both very drawn to art and anything visual! The design I chose for the Pantone Quilt Challenge was inspired by various graphic design posters that Chris and I were looking through. We were coming across so many interesting shapes and patterns with simple block shapes, so I decided to make a quilt design using the same type of influence!
This was technically my first block pattern design, but I wanted it to still reflect my style and uniqueness! That’s why I rotated the block and staggered the start of each row. It creates so much movement!
I knew right from the beginning of the design phase that I wanted this to become my next quilt pattern. So, I used this peach quilt as the cover version of the Birds Hill Pattern!
Here are the Kona Cotton colours I used to match “Living Coral” as best as I could:
So, why the name “Birds Hill”? Well first of all, I name all of my patterns after towns and places in my hometown province of Manitoba!
Birds Hill Provincial Park is located 24 kms north of Winnipeg and is known for its backcountry trails, popular beach and opportunities for bird watching!
I chose the name “Birds Hill” after I had created the design. To me, the triangle shape in the middle looks a lot like a hill, peak or mountain, and the half square triangles look a lot like birds flying up into the sky. If you look close enough, I also see a large bird flying or spreading its wings!
This pattern works really well with monochromatic colourways. So, I needed to make one using greens, of course! I used Spruce Kona Cotton as the dark green background and the following for the lighter shades of green:
Next up, I saw that Cottoneer Fabrics had just received the new fabric line The Open Road by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics. I immediately fell in love with retro inspired florals in these pretty green and yellow prints and knew I needed to order them:
The backing is Kitchen Window Wovens by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman in Forest.
I once again had the honour of working with some really great humans for the launch of this pattern! Check out the versions that my pattern testers made of the Birds Hill Quilt!
From Jennifer @penelopehandmade
From Priscilla @cottonstitchcollective
From Melissa @ifyoudontsew
From Emily @homemadeemilyjane
From Mykayla @mykayla.sygulla
From Holly @holdmyseamripper
From Heather @thecozyprairiequilt
From Laura @finleyfabric
From Anna @waxandwanestudio
After my pattern release, I did a giveaway with Kate and Birdie for their new line of fabrics called “Wonder”. Sadly, I didn’t have the chance to make these quilts in real life, but here are some of the mockups I did for the giveaway!:
In the fall of 2020, I made a custom order Birds Hill Quilt (which I still occasionally do!) using Manchester Embroidered Cotton from Stacked Fabric Company in the following colours:
Then, Art Gallery Fabrics released their new GORGEOUS Pure Solids in the fall of 2020. I knew I HAD to order a bunch of their new colours and make another Birds Hill with them! I used:
I used Kona Cotton in Snow for the background and Bonnie Christine’s Lindon’s Orchard in Cream from the Her and History Collection for the backing. I also used one of my favourite striped bindings, which is Riley Blake’s Snow Sweet Candy Cane Ticking Stripe in Black.
If you haven’t already, you can grab the Birds Hill pattern here!
To see more amazing versions of the Birds Hill Quilt, search through the hashtags #birdshillquilt and #blanketstatementpatterns on social media!
Have questions about this pattern or any other ones in the shop? Please reach out to hello@theblanketstatement.ca and we’ll help you out!