This is my completed Embrace Quilt. I designed this quilt using my improv paper piecing technique that you can find described in my book, Improv Paper Piecing. I really like the shape formed by those three “fingers.” Since they are not intended to represent anything in particular, but are just geometric shapes, I don’t have a better name for them. Initially, when they were colored green in one of the many iterations of this design, they reminded me of fronds. As colors changed, the notion of fingers or hands in a ring made me think of the name Embrace.

I auditioned so many color palettes but kept coming back to this one. I used a grey for the background, an off white and golden color for the piecing. The neutrals just seemed right for the design. With that choice made, I started seeing the fingers or hands more as wings. I then started to second guess my name choice until my mother sent me a picture of a swan with it’s wings up above it’s back, sheltering its babies. I then decided that the name was absolutely perfect because it’s a soft, gentle, motherly embrace.

I decided to quilt with vertical lines spaced 1/4″ apart. I used mostly an off white 40 weight Aurifil thread but occasionally stitched a row in thread the color of those center shapes–a golden color.

The quilt finished at 56″ x 72″ or perhaps a little narrower after the quilting pulled it in!

There’s no pattern available for this one. Maybe there will be in the future, I don’t know. But for now, I just made it as a personal project.