I’m excited to tell you all about the Grand Beach Quilt!
Check out the Grand Beach PDF and Paper Pattern here.
In my last blog post, I mentioned how the West Hawk design was chosen for the Love Quilting and Patchwork Magazine. Well, Grand Beach was actually one of the design options I had sent over that they didn’t end up choosing!
I came up with the concept by playing around with different shapes, transparency and opacity in Illustrator. The pattern was created using two quilt blocks that repeat and rotate to create an unexpected design!
You can do some really interesting things when it comes to colours, fabric selections and placement with this pattern to create a feeling of overlapping triangles!
My husband, Chris, had been asking me for almost two years to make him a quilted wall hanging for his jam/music room using this design. So, I finally gave in! And I also decided to release the design as an official Blanket Statement pattern in June 2020!
I’ll be honest, I agonized over the fabric and colour choices for Chris’s version because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to successfully pull off the transparency with the fabric. But, I ended up being SO happy with the result and his quilt became the cover version for the Grand Beach Pattern!
I was also VERY thankful for my Kona Colour Card at the time, since I was making this quilt during the early COVID lockdown days when no local stores here in Winnipeg were open!
Here’s what I ended up using for the wall hanging (which is technically the baby size):
I ended up making four versions in total and took them all to Grand Beach for a photoshoot a month before the pattern launch! We left early in the morning to try and beat the wind that inevitably picks up near large bodies of water - and you can imagine how that goes when holding up quilts for photos!
When we arrived, I was surprised and thrilled to see that my cover quilt matched the Grand Beach welcome sign!
Because it was May in Manitoba, we were pretty much the only people on the beach! It was lovely.
Speaking of lovely, that would be a good word to describe Grand Beach! Resting along the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, Grand Beach is a Provincial Park in Manitoba with Canada's sixth largest lake. It has powdery white sand and grass-topped dunes that make it one of the top beaches in North America!
I named the pattern after Grand Beach because the design truly makes me think about sailboats, waves and sand dunes!
Next, I made another baby quilt using the newly released (at the time) Lindley Lawn from Ruby Star Society! Here's the full list of fabrics I used for this one:
- Snow
- Caramel
- Foxglove
- Peach
- Lingerie
- Lindley Lawn Persimmon
- Lindley Lawn Periwinkle
- Lindley Lawn Caramel (I also used this for the backing!)
I used Lindley Lawn Periwinkle as the binding!
I then made a throw size in some very classic Blanket Statement greens! This quilt may just be one of my favourites to date! I used:
The backing is Driftless - Scattered in Natural designed by Anna Graham of Noodle Head!
I then hand quilted a wall hanging size using a Stellar by Ruby Star Society Charm Pack!
Fun fact. I actually designed this pattern so that the wall hanging size can very easily be made with a charm pack!
I used Kona Snow for the background and Fried Eggs from Darlings as the backing!
One of my favourite parts of a pattern launch is working with pattern testers! And the humans I got to work alongside for the Grand Beach launch were no exception. Check out their unique versions below!
From Jennifer @penelopehandmade
From Holly @holdmyseamripper
From Robin @seamedtobe
From Nicki @wovenandwoolly
From Sarai @sarai_hobbies
From Sarah @sarahsew_sew
From Janice @prairieandocean (she did two!)
Lastly, I did this mockup for a Grand Beach kit put together by Savannah of ButterflyweedShop! I think it’s just so pretty!
Here are the Art Gallery Pure Solids that were included in the kit:
- Dried Carrot
- Apricot Crepe
- Peach Sherbet
- Lemon Tart
- Crystalline Light Blue
- Patina Green
- Zambia Stone
If you haven’t already, you can grab the Grand Beach Pattern here - it’s available as a digital download or paper pattern!
To see so many other creative versions of the Grand Beach Quilt, you can search through the hashtags #grandbeachquilt 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!