Quilter Spotlight: Twilight Quilt by Essie

Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste. –Charlotte Brontë

We always love to encounter others who have shared their love of Twilight through quilting. Recently, we met Essie, a Twi-Fan who lives in the Netherlands. She agreed to let us share her beautiful quilt with you!

Twi-Quilters: How long did the quilt take you?
Essie: I started this quilt in October 2011, during the Dutch Quilters Guild retreat. The assignment was to design and make a quilt with signs, lettering and/or text.

A lot of people made something with their initials, but I didn't want to do that. So while I was trying to think about what to make for this quilt I thought, “‘text’ ... ‘books’ ... why not make something with Twilight? The image on the cover of Breaking Dawn combined with the lettering that was used for the films?”

Of course I didn't have the books with me, but fortunately the hotel could print things for me, so I took quite a few trips to the computer in the lobby during those 4 days.

The letters Twilight were made with fusible appliqué. I had to make do with what I had at the time and I didn't have the option to print on fabric ... all the other writing is done with pens as they were too small to fuse. The quilt measures only 19 x 21 inches.

The block on the top left corner I did back at home as well as the ribbon. Between doing this and that, the quilt ended up on the "to-do"—pile and I quilted and finished it a year later in October of 2012.

Twi-Quilters: Do you have a favorite quilt block?
Essie: I loved making the part with the chess pieces, but my favorite part is probably the smallest ... it is the little howling wolf silhouette.

Twi-Quilters: Who is the quilt for?
Essie: I never intended to make this quilt for anyone, and seeing as Twilight is close to my heart, I think I'm just going to keep this one for myself.

Twi-Quilters: What is your favorite book in the Twilight series?
Essie: I don't really have a favorite because I love them all, and I see them really as one book, one continuing story. I think New Moon is special to me because it was the first book I read in the series.

But one I would really love to read more of is Midnight Sun, loved to hear the story and thoughts from Edward's perspective. I hope Stephenie finishes it one day.

Twi-Quilters: Which team are you?
Essie: Can I pick team Bella? If not I'll have to go for team Edward, because that's Bella's choice too.

Twi-Quilters: Who is your favorite character in the books?
Essie: Apart from Bella and Edward ... I really like Alice, love the way she moves in a fight as shown in the films.

Twi-Quilters: How many times have you read the books? Seen the movies?
Essie: Someone at work lent me a DVD once called Twilight for me to watch. From that time on I was hooked, and went straight to the bookstore to get the book New Moon. I must have read the books about 3 or 4 times, as for the movies ... I think I've lost count. With Breaking Dawn coming out on DVD, I can feel a movie marathon coming. ...

Twi-Quilters: Anything you’d like to share with us about Twilight, your quilt, or quilting in general?
Essie: I really enjoyed working on this quilt and also really like the quilts you have made with all the paper pieced blocks each with their own story to tell. It is so much fun to give your own interpretation to something you have been a part of and loved reading (and/or watching). One day I might make a bigger different version of this Twilight quilt.

Something else I like and might make a quilt of some day is The Lord of the Rings. I have some ideas for that one going around my brain for a while now, but before I start with that I need to finish some of my current ongoing products.

Essie, thank you for sharing your beautiful quilt with us. It was so fun to see pictures, hear about your process and get to know you a little better!