The Court Jester

The Court Jester was for my niece Michelle. When I made it, I was writing Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts, so every quilt I made incorporated spirals. I struggled for months over how to combine the curvy spirals with the square 9-patch block. What finally did the trick was the smaller 9-patch blocks and the diamond border -- the smaller details made the two types of block work together. The colors of this quilt show how to use a "kicker" color: coral was just the thing to energize the pink-and-grey quilt.

My nephew David (who was six at the time) asked if he could help sew this quilt and Fruit Salad Spinner. He LOVES machines, so I set him on my lap and showed him how to guide the sewing machine along the lines of the paper piecing foundation while I managed the foot pedal. His mom walked into the room and nearly fainted. Turns out, he had been asking her for months to show him how to sew, but she was afraid to let him use the sewing machine. Got her over that fear! And he did a wonderful job!

Pattern available in Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts