Every now and then I’ll create a design and then hoard it for a bit while I decide if I want to make it myself. Sometimes I do (see Sunday sketch #441 / Moonshot, or #432, for example), and sometimes I don’t (too many to count!). This time I did 🙂 Meet Tectonic.

I only ended up posting this as a Sunday sketch earlier this month (#475), even though I designed this quilt back in January 2024. It took me a while to get around to making it, although construction itself was quite quick. Then I waited a bit longer before getting it quilted… and then binding it… and then getting a decent photo (thanks Tara!). Honestly, I’m good with deadlines, but useless if I don’t have any.

Anyway, here’s a reminder of (one of the versions of) the original sketch:

You can see how closely I stuck to this palette. And it’s probably closer than the top pic would have you believe – the background fabric is less white in real life, and the red is more of a hot orange. I didn’t want to buy any fabric to make this one, so I just found 5 colours in my stash that would work. I only needed 1/4 yard of each, which meant I had more colours to choose from.

The background colour is Kona Bone and the black is Kona Charcoal. As for the five colours… they’re undoubtedly Kona cotton solids but I’m not sure exactly what shades. Possibly Paris Blue, Citrus, Bright Pink, Sour Apple and…? I don’t tend to use red much, so that’s probably Kona Flame or Carrot or something similar.

I think I chose the name Tectonic before I even started making this one – it just seemed to fit those blocks interacting with each other at their boundaries.

The blocks came together quite quickly, as they all feature some combination of half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles and/or flying geese in black and white. The only colour is in the middle of the blocks and is made up of squares or economy blocks (which use the same sized squares to create the corners). So I only needed to cut one size of square from each colour, and then I could chain-piece the rest of the units for all the blocks. Easy peasy. (Sometimes I just end up making a hoarded sketch to see if it’s as easy to make as I think it will be….)

To make sure the pointy black bits ‘nestled’ into the adjacent blocks, I just finger-pressed the middle of the respective units before pinning blocks together. Nothing fancy. No actual points-matching was needed when joining blocks.

I also added a border, just so there was a little breathing space around the outer blocks. Otherwise the black pieces would meet the edges of the quilt, which I didn’t want.

The backing fabric is from the Sketchbook collection by Alexia Abegg of Ruby Star Society (manufactured by Moda Fabrics; item #RS4071-15).

I’m not sure of the fabric name; I’ve seen it called ‘Paint’ or ‘Paint Brush’. (As an aside: I really wish fabric manufacturers would have archive webpages where you can find the names/details of older and out of print fabrics.) Anyway, the black brushstrokes and cream background matched the base colours of the quilt top perfectly. And I just love this design. Sometimes when I love a fabric but know that I won’t use it as a print on the front of a quilt, I’ll buy enough yardage to use it as a backing instead 🙂

Tectonic was quilted by Valerie Cooper of Sweet Gum Quilting. She used the Good Vibrations edge-to-edge design at 1/2″ density in ivory thread. It’s a nice subtle texture that works well without overwhelming the piecing.

I decided to add a black binding to match the edges of the blocks and the backing fabric. It’s a nice frame for the whole quilt (and avoids any issues with having a pale beige edge!).

I’m really happy with how Tectonic worked out. Add this to my pile of favourites – I loved the sketch, and now I love the quilt!