I'd like to introduce you to the Landmark Quilt, my newest pattern available here!
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this quilt pattern, let me first tell you about the name! Naming my quilt patterns after places in my province has become one of my favourite parts of the design process. I'm often choosing names of provincial parks, or tiny towns in rural Manitoba, but this one holds an extra special meaning.
Landmark is the town where my husband spent his teens years and where my in-laws still live. My husband's grandparents live on an acreage just outside of Landmark, and now my sister-in-law moved just down the highway from them!
To top it off, my little family spent two and a half years living in Landmark - and it's where my son was born.
Landmark is an unassuming town of only 1300 people surrounded by farmland. However, it does have a claim to fame. Landmark is located at the longitudinal centre of Canada! How cool is that?
Now getting back to the quilt pattern. Why Landmark, you ask?
Great question! There are two main reasons why I chose this name. First, the alternating blocks of the Landmark quilt create a subtle woven pattern that is reminiscent of prairie farmer’s fields. Like different crops, sectioned off by mile roads.
The second reason is because of the way the flying geese are all pointing in towards the centre. It feels like they could be pointing at a specific landmark in an "X marks the spot" kind of way.
When I first set out to design this pattern, I had a few key challenges for myself. After taking a quick poll of my Instagram followers, the most common request was for a block-based pattern. So, that was the first one!
Second, I wanted to create a quilt pattern that would work well for both a two-colour and multi-coloured quilt. Making a two-colour quilt has been a long time goal of mine, however, I didn't feel that any of my previous quilt patterns made sense for two-colour.
Additionally, I thought that if I could try and make this pattern fat quarter and scrap-friendly, that would be an extra bonus!
And guess what?! I managed to include all of those options in the Landmark pattern.
This quilt pattern has a multi-colour option, a two-colour version, a fat quarter or scrap-friendly option...and to top it off, it comes with six different sizes!
I’ve never claimed to be an underachiever.
Now, let's chat about the cover quilt! I'd love to say that the colours were inspired by something...well, inspirational. But if I'm perfectly honest, these are just fabric colours I keep coming back to over and over again.
There is just something about the combination of rich blues with icy peaches that really makes me happy. So I figured, why fight a good thing?
I used Kona Cotton for this quilt in some of my most used colours:
- Black (Colour #1019)
- Salmon (Colour #1483)
- Peach (Colour #1281)
- Windsor (Colour #1389)
- Dresden Blue (Colour #1123)
- Snow (Colour #1339)
I went with Strawberry Peach from the Darling Collection from Ruby Star Society for the backing fabric. I think it's the sweetest combination, especially because I made the baby size of this colourway.
I've labelled this quilt pattern as “Intermediate”, but don't let that scare you! I think another pattern designer may have even labelled it “Confident Beginner”. Keep in mind, when I label my quilts as “Beginner”, I mean TRUE beginner. AKA, someone who has never made a quilt before!
This quilt pattern uses a few different techniques, with each technique being fairly simple on its own. If you're looking for a more beginner-friendly pattern, may I suggest Paint Lake or perhaps Pine Falls? Both are excellent patterns to dip your toes into quilting.
The Landmark quilt combines no-waste flying geese, strip piecing, block construction and adding borders. But don't let that turn you away - it’s still a quick finish, and an oh-so-satisfying one!
As I was saying, the pattern includes six different sizes!
- A single block (18.5" x 18.5"), perfect for a mini wall hanging or a quilted throw pillow
- Baby (40" x 40")
- Small Throw (60" x 60")
- Large Throw (60" x 78")
- Twin (78" x 96")
- Bed (98" x 98")
Because this quilt is a block-based pattern, you could also always add or remove blocks to customize the size to your preference!
Here are the Fabric Requirements for the sizes I've included in the pattern:
Some final details around my cover quilt! When I first started my quilting journey, I hand quilted everything! It was the way my mom taught me, and the only way I knew how to finish a quilt. In the last few years, I've taken up machine quilting because there just isn't enough time in the day to hand quilt everything!
But trust me, I would if I could. I love the charm of hand quilting. I also love plunking myself down on the couch in the evening and settling in for a few hours of hand quilting.
For this Landmark quilt, I did a combination of machine quilting and hand quilting. I first went over the quilt with some simple machine quilting. I used black 50 weight Aurifil thread so that my stitching would blend in with the background fabric. I quilted about 1/8" over from the seam lines to make sure the quilt was securely quilted, but also so there were no distracting stitch lines.
Then I used coordinating 12 weight Aurifil thread to add some hand quilting detail to each of the flying geese. This is much quicker than trying to hand quilt the whole quilt, especially when working with a tight deadline! As an added bonus, I feel more confident that this quilt will withstand many trips through the washing machine…let’s be honest, it is a baby quilt!
I'll be sharing more versions of the Landmark quilt soon, as well as details about a Landmark Quilt-a-Long I have planned for January. I'm excited to see the quilts you create using this pattern, so please tag me in your photos! Make sure to use the hashtags #landmarkquilt and #blanketstatementpatterns on Instagram!
Happy Quilting!
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!