The second set of blocks for my book quilt weren’t books at all, but a set of 4 gnomes for the corners. I used the Nordic Gnome pattern from the 2021 Quiltmas Spectacular. This block is traditionally pieced, rather than Foundation Paper Pieced like the book blocks. I’ve actually never done traditional piecing, so this was a bit of a learning experience for me, and some of my seams are a bit wonky.
The blocks turned out 12 1/2” square, which set the size for the rest of the blocks in the quilt. I took a minute to look up the size of a twin quilt (70” x 90”) and realized I woefully miscalculated the number of blocks I would need(6×8 instead of 4×5). This brings my total number of blocks to 24 instead of the 14 I originally planned on. Which, in turn, means that I need to add 10 weeks to my making schedule for this quilt. An additional 10 weeks is quite a setback, but my original plan only took half the year to make the top, leaving 26 weeks for basting, quilting, and binding. I have never quilted anything before, but if I pick a simple, spaced design it should be doable to baste, quilt, and bind in 16 weeks.
The colour scheme of these blocks is very personal for me. I grew up with 3 brothers in a similar age range to me (my sisters came along about 10 years after us), and my parents used colour assignments to signify whose stuff was whose. My oldest brother was yellow (tan in the quilt), my next brother was green, I was red, and my last brother was blue. Now that we’re adults we’re spread across different states, but it feels good to have the four of us together again, at least symbolically, in this quilt.
Dramatic Lyric 