Line Dance - the Love Patchwork & Quilting cover quilt

I'm finally getting a minute to show you more of the Line Dance quilt that appeared on the cover of issue 101 of Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine.*

This was such a lovely quilt to sew up. I love the Prickly Pear collection from Figo Fabrics that I was able to use for this throw size quilt, and I'm saving the few remnants I still have for a special project in the future.

*Printed back issues are no longer available from the publishers, but they do have an app with digital copies. The Line Dance quilt pattern is also available as a standalone pattern in my shop.

Line Dance Quilt Pattern

The inspiration for the Line Dance quilt pattern actually came from a piece of gift wrap that I had saved for some time. I liked how the lines on it intertwined and seemed to go over and under each other. 

A piece of gift wrap is obviously one continuous design, but that doesn't always work so well for a quilt, so I knew I needed to make this a block-based pattern somehow. I played around with various intertwining lines in a single block that would connect to the next block until it did what I wanted it to do.

The Line Dance quilt pattern is made up of two mirror-image blocks that simply get repeated and rotated a half turn to make up all the twists and turns. It's important to keep track of where each colour goes, but otherwise it turned out to be quite a simple way to make something look rather complicated.

Prickly Pear Fabric by Figo

When the magazine's editor Debora and I were deciding which fabrics to go with, we wanted to make the pattern jelly roll friendly so we knew it would have to be a scrappy version. 

It still needed to look cohesive, though, and I wanted the various loops on the pattern to stand out. We chose the Prickly Pear collection from Figo Fabrics (designed by Emily Taylor) because it has three main colours (blue, yellow, pink) that would work out well to make the various loops.

In this case, I went for two pink and two yellow corner loops, and used the blues for the center and the incomplete loops around the edge. This collection has one very dark navy print among all the lighter blues, so I decided to use the navy for the center loop to make it stand out from the rest of the blues as well and give the quilt a bit more depth.

Quilting Design

I sent this quilt out to Heather of Red Willow Quilts to be quilted with an overall pantograph. She sent me a few options to pick from and we decided on the Kapari pantograph. I love how it adds some movement with the curved design, but is very geometric at the same time. It complements the looped-yet-not-curvy design of the quilt blocks perfectly.

Line Dance Pillow

One fun bonus with having the mirror image quilt blocks is that they connect all the way around if they're put back to back. This gives you some fun options for making smaller projects with the blocks, like a pillow or a tote (or even a table runner, although that wouldn't be reversible).

The way the ribbons line up at the edges of the block makes them connect around to the back of a tote or pillow, and then back to the front again on the other side.

The blocks in the pattern are 18" square, so they are perfect for making a pillow. To make your own, follow this tutorial and use two mirror-image blocks instead of one block and a backing fabric.

The magazine pattern includes instructions for how to make a lined tote as well, similar to this one. Again, use two mirror image blocks so they connect around the edges of the tote and it will look like the ribbons are flowing from back to front and back again.