Those who know me will tell you with the utmost certainty that I am not a baker. My mother was, my daughter is, but the inclination skipped right over me. To be perfectly honest, I find cooking in general to be a thankless task: however long you spend working on a dish, it’ll be gone in a fraction of the time.

The lattice on an apple pie, for example, doomed to be destroyed seconds after reaching the table. That weaving movement, though, of dough on dough, doesn’t have to be exclusive to food, does it? I wondered what would happen if I used long strips of fabric to achieve the same effect…

Lo and behold, Duck & Weave! By picking and aligning strips of the same print, I’ve created the lattice illusion. I had some fun with it and played around with the width of the lines, giving the eye more to see. To save you time and tears, though, we use strip piecing! I’m sure you’ll notice repeated sections, and that’s going to make this a whole lot easier to make than it looks!

The thing is, the moment I got my hands on this Vitamin Sea collection, I knew I had to make a pattern worthy of it, an homage to my love of the ocean. As a bonus, it has a healthy variety of prints, in differing sizes, that really allows for them to play on each other, which worked out splendidly on the quilt. What’s more, I used that sandy fabric for the background of the stripes because it reminded me of setting a towel down on the beach for some sunbathing.

Duck and Weave includes three sizes (baby, lap and queen), is precut friendly, and is absolutely not edible, which means it should last more than an afternoon. I recommend you play around with different fabric combinations; both the color and density of the prints should contrast nicely enough so that the effect is achieved, but you won’t want to have anything clash either! 

Let me talk about the quilting! I picked this design because it reminds me of a nautical compass of sorts, don’t you think? Also, the round shapes really confront the sharp blocky pattern and give the whole quilt more movement; doesn’t it seem more three dimensional this way? Kaitlin from knotandthread did the actual quilting (because it is, as you know, the bane of my existence), and she did an excellent job, as usual. This is really a pattern that thrives with chaos, while somehow looking so neat, like it’s all perfectly contained.

Evidence to the point: when I finished the quilt, I realized it could totally work for Fourth of July too. An unexpected bonus! 

While this process has allowed me to appreciate the methodical satisfaction that baking may bring, I think I’ll stick to designing and sewing; the products of which will last as long as I like. But make no mistake, I’ll be first in line to the kitchen the next time my daughter takes up the whisk, just as she’s first to add yet another quilt to the pile on her bed.

You can find the Duck and Weave Pattern in my shop.

Don’t forget to use the #duckandweavequilt and #sewmarianapatterns so I can see your progress in social media.