You can find a copy of Jack's Gate Pattern here.
Jack's Gate is my modern quilt pattern inspired by the gates in our neighborhood in Asia. This design uses negative space to draw your attention to the bright flowers and bold gate of the quilt.
I love Jack's Gate because it isn't what you usually expect from a quilt. It isn't symmetrical, this throws people at first. People aren't quite sure what to make of the extra space at the top of the quilt. But each little element gives Jack's Gate a unique and modern, yet natural feel.
About the Pattern
As I said Jack's Gate was inspired by my neighborhood. Each flat or villa is surrounded by a cement wall with a gate. Each gate is unique and tells about the owner. Around the gate you will frequently find an abundance of ferns and other tropical plants trying to meld with the gate.
Jack's Gate is the perfect pattern to use up that fat eighth bundle you have had lying around. It uses fat eighths for the flowers of the quilt. However, you could easily use scraps!
Jack's Gate has three sizes:
- Crib (41 in. x 54 in.)
- Throw (54 in. x 72 in.)
- Bed (69 in. x 74 in.)
This version is the Crib size. As you can see the crib size is still large. It could be a small throw, or toddler bedding.
Jack's Gate is pieced on point which means the blocks are pieced. Then, they are all turned to a 45 degree angle when sewn together. This is why the pattern is listed as an intermediate level.
The trimming of the quilt is done on the bias, which can be tricky if you are a beginner quilter. The cutting across the bias means cutting across the grain of the fabric which stretches very easily.
Below you can see an image of when I was in the middle of trimming this quilt. I highly suggest using a long ruler with a 45 degree line. This greatly helps as a reference point to make sure that your cutting is straight.
Here is a ruler similar to the one I used. It's great for all basic cutting needs. If you are a beginner quilter, this is a must have!
About This Quilt
I wanted the fabric choices for this version of Jack's Gate to be fun. So far I had used bundles to make my other versions. However, for this version I decided to risk it and match the fabrics myself. I am colorblind and this is always a risk. But I do have a backup team who approves my choices.
For starters it was important that the background color not be white! My previous versions both had a white background. Which meant I needed to do some serious looking through my quilt cabinet to see which fabric I had enough yardage of. This took me quite a while.
I finally decided on this soft blue with a subtle print (all fabrics in this quilt are Art Gallery Fabrics, they are older prints and most are no longer in print).
I then went through the pinks, corals, purples, oranges... and any other Art Gallery prints I thought would look nice for the flowers of the quilt. I was kind of going for a Bohemian feel. Choosing the fabrics was probably my favorite part.
In this case I used two fabrics for the gate. They are the same print, but different colors and tones. I randomly placed the gate fabric in the quilt, so some areas might have more of one fabric than the other. But that is what makes scrappy quilts fun.
Jack's Gate could be a great modern quilt pattern to make scrappy. It would be easy to use scraps for the flowers, a dark or light group of fabrics for the background and the opposite for the gate.
Backing the Quilt
I have a lot of older fabric in my fabric stash currently. I was in the US during the Pandemic for two years. So all my fabric just sat here. I've been using some older prints, that I love, to piece together fun backings.
The crib size quilt was an easy backing to piece together because of it's size. Most baby sized quilts are easy to back because you can use a width of fabric without having to add any extra inches. However, this quilt is a bit wider so I needed to add in some scraps.
I found some older Art Gallery Fabric that went well with the fabric on the front. I found two yardage pieces that would work and then some strips of scraps which I cut down all to the same size. Then I cut 6 inches into the yardage to add the strip down the left side of the quilt.
I also happened to have those cute owls which I fussy cut a row of because, why not?
I quilted this Jack's Gate modern quilt without using a walking foot. My large machine with the walking foot was broken at the time so I decided to give it a whirl on my small machine.
It turned out fine, however, I think quilting with a walking foot and a guide makes my lines straighter (even though I marked the lines on this before I quilted). Next time I'll wait for my large machine to work. :)
I love how this cute little crib sized Jack's Gate modern quilt turned out. What a fun quilt it would be for a modern nursery!
If you have never made a quilt with trimming on point, why not give it try? Just take it slow, don't stretch the fabric and have fun!
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