I didn’t make many quilts in 2025, but I knew I’d need something to submit to this year’s QuiltCon. About the only design I felt like making at the time was a variation on Sunday sketch #458. This is Pep!

The featured sketch in the Sunday sketch #458 blog post has blocks laid on point, but further down in the post there are versions using a standard layout. Here’s the one I was most interested in making.

You can see a few differences between the sketch and the finished quilt: I changed the number and placement of each block type, and I opted for a different colour palette. I’d already made a blue and green quilt recently (Shadowbox, based on Sunday sketch #432), so I wanted something different. Because the design itself is quite jarring and chaotic, I wanted a pair of colours that kinda clashed and enhanced that feeling of not being able to look at the quilt for long. I was really aiming for that ‘in your face’ kinda feeling. Here’s what I landed on. See what I mean?

I think the finished quilt looks more like the Electric Quilt 8 design than the photograph above suggests, but these fabrics are hard to capture.

That’s me in Tara Glastonbury’s studio, trying to get high enough to see the whole quilt on my phone. The pic on the right is an unedited image that gives you a better idea of how much the colours clash.

Pep was quilted by Valerie Cooper of Sweet Gum Quilting using ‘Good Vibrations‘, an edge-to-edge design by Patricia Ritter that features repetitive waves. Valerie spaced the lines 1/2″ apart and used a light pink thread. I don’t think it’s immediately obvious that the lines aren’t straight, so their waviness just adds to the overall disorienting feeling when you look at the quilt. I love it!

I submitted Pep to the Modern Traditionalism category in QuiltCon, and I’m excited that it was juried in to the show and will hang in Raleigh. Pep is also for sale, so check out the QuiltCon website during the show (February 19–22, 2026) for all the details.

Sometimes I need a bit of external motivation to get things done, so I’m grateful that the looming QuiltCon deadline prompted me to make Pep!