Rotation, Featured in Love of Quilting

Woohoo! This is a record for me – two magazines in one month. Rotation has been one of my longest running projects ever. I had almost forgotten how much I loved it when I originally designed it. This is a fat quarter friendly project, and it leaves behind very little waste.

I’ve whined about this project before – it was originally scheduled to be published in the September 2019 issue of Precut Patchwork. Unfortunately, that magazine was closed down, with the last issue being published in August of 2019. I was thrilled to find out that it was picked up for Love of Patchwork, but that meant a long, long wait before I could share it.

So, here it is, made with Giucy Giuce‘s Redux fabric line. The line is a little older now, so you might not be able to find it all at your local quilt shop. It is worth the work to find it, though. I really enjoyed working with this fabric.

This project started on a commute into New York City, back when my commute was 1.5 hours long. I had my graph paper notebook, and I was thinking of what designs I could do that would use up an entire fat quarter. I was also thinking of my boss pointing out that there was room in the market for patterns that would be considered “beginner +”. Something beyond the very basics, but not hard enough to make someone frustrated. I had also been working with the Studio 180 Wing Clipper.

Like a lot of my projects, I give some thought to how easy it will be for my followers to get their hands on the fabric I used. When I choose fabrics for publication, I make sure that the units I am using will be sold by the manufacturer. So, with this one, I know that Andover (the fabric company) was going to offer fat quarter bundles of Redux. I also try to give some thought to how well it will work for fabric shops. Even shops that don’t carry Redux will have fat quarter bundles that will work with this pattern. Look for Declassified – it is a similar collection.

I came up with a block that uses large flying geese – easy enough for an adventurous beginner, but something that benefits from precision. Just for fun, it also uses partial seam construction. Partial seams sound terrifying, but I promise, once you try them, you will be happy to use them again and again to make magic.

It is called “Goosin’ Around” in Love of Quilting (where they also spelled my name wrong. It’s a good month to be Jennifer Strausser!) That was my working title for the quilt, but I didn’t really care for it at all. Naming quilts is kind of hit or miss for me. Also, they credited someone else with quilting the quilt for me. You know that isn’t correct. I’m sure Donna does lovely work, but she didn’t do the work on this piece.

I have a few more coloring options I put together for this quilt, but they wouldn’t be as “fat quarter friendly.” The pattern looks really good when it is a combination of print and solid. I’ll probably explore those options some more when it comes time to release my print version of the pattern. I have to check out what that does to fabric requirements.

My first pass at this pattern was released for an Island Batik monthly challenge.

You can find your very own copy of Love of Quilting here. It’s a thick magazine – I was surprised at how many patterns it contains compared to others I’ve been published in.

Thank you to Love of Quilting for the publication, and Andover for providing the fabric. You have been a pleasure to work with.

Do you enjoy working with precut fabric bundles? What are your preferred sizes to work with?