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!

Quilter Spotlight: Twilight Saga Quilt by Dot

“Don't be afraid,” I murmured. “We belong together.”
–Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, page 85

Twilight quilting is an occupation near and dear to our hearts, so it is always fun to find a fellow quilter with the same passion. We are excited to share with you the beautiful Twilight Saga Quilt by Dot, who also let us interview her and has given us permission to post the photos of her quilt.

Twi-Quilters: Who is the quilt for?
Dot: There was no question from the beginning of the idea to make the quilt that it would go to my daughter, Kate, and granddaughter, Elizabeth. It is now in my daughter’s possession and I know she is going to take good care of it. And of course I have “visiting” rights to it, lol.

Originally Kate offered me the books to read. I was immediately hooked. The three of us and my husband and younger grandson Joseph went to the movies together, and during the making of this quilt I just had to buy my own copy of the books. I am constantly struck by the beauty of this love story, so skillfully written. I am now rereading the books for the third time and they are just as exciting as the first time I read them.

Twi-Quilters: What was your favorite part about making this quilt?
Dot: My favorite part about making the quilt was working with my daughter and granddaughter to pick out the blocks that they would like to see. They collaborated with me in the pattern choices. The brainstorming session with them was a lot of fun. We checked out the Fandom in Stitches site and found most of the patterns there and continued the search until I found what we wanted and adjusted the patterns as I needed.

Twi-Quilters: Do you have a favorite quilt block?
Dot: I think my favorite block was the Quileute Tattoo. I cannot imagine anyone doing this as a 5” block, but I enjoyed the challenge of getting to all to fit together as a 12” block. It wasn't until after it was all quilted and I posted the pictures in Flickr that I realized that there is a glaring error in the block! A black tail on the bottom left side. It amazes me that we could have all looked at that block before the quilt was constructed and none of us saw it! Normally something like that would drive me to distraction if it wasn't fixed, but I don’t feel that compulsion for some reason.

Twi-Quilters: How long did the quilt take you?
Dot: I began thinking about doing the quilt in 2011. I kept checking out the Fandom site and of course had to watch the movies to get colors set in my mind. Kate also had the books that were published about making the movies and helped me with color selections and ideas. Finally this Spring I started to make the blocks. My first one was Bella and Edward laying in the meadow. Originally this block had a lot of flowers, but eventually I trimmed the meadow and added woods. The wolf blocks were next. It was a real challenge to find the hairy fabric in my stash. Actually, except for the backing, all of the fabric came out of my stash.

Dot: I would guess that from the first block to the quilting took about three months.

Twi-Quilters: What is your favorite book in the Twilight series?
Dot: My favorite book would probably be the second one. It was the hardest one to read because of the pain Bella went through, but, again, it was written so beautifully I could feel her pain. Showing the passing of the months with just the name of the month on the page really struck me as ingenious, as did the scene with Bella and her grandmother. The ideas in the writing were so fresh I couldn’t read fast enough but yet didn’t want the book to end!

Twi-Quilters: Which team are you (Edward, Jacob or Switzerland)?
Dot: Although I suspected that Bella loved Jacob before she knew it, I would have to admit I wanted Edward to win. After all, he waited 100 years to find Bella.

Twi-Quilters: Who is your favorite character in the books?
Dot: How in the world could I pick one favorite character? I loved all of them. Jacob was so unassuming. Alice was so endearing, Emmett was so accepting and fun. Jasper was always so serious! But this was Edward and Bella’s story, so they would be my favorite characters.

Twi-Quilters: How many times have you read the books? Seen the movies?
Dot: As I already mentioned, I’m reading the books for the third time right now. I would guess that just while I was working on the blocks that I probably saw all four of the movies at least 50 times and I’m anxiously awaiting the premiere of the final movie.

Twi-Quilters: Anything you’d like to share with us about Twilight, your quilt, or quilting in general?
Dot: I’m sure Stephanie Meyer can never hear too often how wonderful the Twilight series is. I’ve enjoyed every book, every movie, and every step of constructing this quilt and designing the layout for the blocks . I loved brainstorming with my girls and showing them blocks as they were finished. I was surprised when I looked at the picture of your quilt that you had quotes on it. I really thought I had an original idea! My quilt wouldn’t have been completed without the quotes. Edwards’ toast to his beautiful bride had to be immortalized.

Dot: I feel honored that you like the quilt and hope that others may be inspired to finish theirs.

More about the blocks:
Dot: The Golden Onion Award was an idea I played around with and finally made using a picture of an onion that I found online. It’s back stitch applique.

Dot: The Dream Catcher block was made from a wreath pattern from EQ7. Then I hand stitched the webbing in the center, and after the quilt was done, I added buttons from a collection of antique buttons my dad gave me before he died.

Dot: The paper pieced rings and baseball field were from Paper Panache. I changed the diamond ring to look more like the oval ring Edward gave to Bella when he asked her to marry him. The second pattern was Baseball, Bat and Home Plate Paper-Pieced Pattern.

Dot: Three of the applique patterns were from the Four Twin Sisters site: White Tailed Deer, Black Dress with Roses (revised by me to look more like the white wedding dress in Bella’s nightmare the night before the wedding), and Grand Piano, all done with back stitch applique.

Dot used the following patterns from Fandom in Stitches in her quilt:

Broken Petals
Charlie's House
Charm Bracelet
Diamond Heart
First Beach
Forbidden Fruit
Forks Badge
The Forest
Graduation
Jacob's House
Lamb
Lion
The Meadow
Quiluete Tattoo
Topaz Eye
Torn Ribbon
Victoria
White Queen
Wolf

See all of Dot's photos on her Flickr photostream.