Introducing the Cleo Pattern!
About the Quilt
The Cleo cover quilt is near and dear to me.
I knew I wanted a big block pattern and I love star blocks. And while I love modern quilting, I appreciate and enjoy a lot of traditional quilting aspects too. I wanted something that would bridge the gap and be impactful. I had been noodling on a design when I encountered an AI-generated photo of a similar quilt, and the tweaks I needed to arrive at the end result clicked into place.
But I stepped out of my comfort zone with these fabrics. They're all within my preferred color palette, but they're also all similar value and not tonal/in the same color families. I think the biggest area you see me favor traditional quilting is the color/fabric choices I make, while I prefer modern designs. I have also loved Fableism wovens since I discovered them but had been too timid to quilt with them yet. It's kind of funny in hindsight - I was so scared because they're a loose weave, which = "fragile" to me... but I'd made clothes with it before. I find garment making to be like cooking while quilting is like baking though, one is more art and has leeway and the other is more science and requires precision.
So using a more modern approach to the color palette in a fabric I'd never sewn with before felt very risky as I was making it! In fact, in order to account for the fabric I actually cut the pieces larger than the pattern calls for so that I could use a 3/8" seam allowance. Coupled with the shrinkage from not pre-washing, the dimensions are slightly different. I prewash all my fabric for garment-making, but I love a crinkle so I rarely do for quilting. I do think with wovens I will next time.
I really love this pattern because the hardest part is taking the time to trim your HST's. No Y-seams, no funky piecing. It's assembled in quadrants. Fun fact: I will make every quilt quadrant-based I possibly can unless it doesn't make sense to, like the Junie. It's honestly fun to sew; it's made in sections and they're a reasonable size so you can feel accomplished and watch it build. (If you didn't know I make my patterns neurodivergent-friendly, just sew one! You'll "get" it.) I think it makes a great gifting quilt because it does have that wow factor with the massive star but it won't make you regret your life choices completing it on time.
Recommendations for Fabric Pulling
Caveat: You can use whatever fabrics you like in the Cleo quilt! You can mix and match them however you want. You can use the same fabric for more than one letter. The world is your oyster and the quilt is yours. But if you'd like some guidance on how to work with the design, this is for you.
The Cleo quilt fabric can be pulled in three pairs. Below is a handy chart for how I pick the fabric for Cleo quilts.
I'll start with A & B which I like to pick "together," and then I'll pick D next so I can consider fabrics against B. I pick C to pair with D. Make sure C contrasts with E so you don't lose the star shape.
Because C, D, and E are all medium-ish values (the three fabrics it touches), it helps to use a high contrast fabric for F, whether light or dark, to provide that accent effect. I pick a background last so I can put the other colors in a row and compare options against all of them at once.
If you look at the quarter log cabin corners, they're laid out specifically so that the light and light/dark fabrics are between medium-ish value fabrics for balance.
The Baby Size
Often for baby size options in quilt patterns you'll see one of two things: either you use fewer blocks in a block-based design, or if it's a non-grid layout, you make the whole pattern on a smaller scale. I went with neither for the baby Cleo!
Because 3KQ is founded on accessibility, I'm loath to scale things down too much because the smaller pieces can be fiddly and difficult to handle with physical issues. Instead, I took only the center blocks of the throw quilt to make the baby size. It keeps the spirit of the quilt intact better too, with its oversize center star. However, this means you DO NOT need Fabric E (the background) for the baby size.