Today, I want to share with you my absolute favorite quilt that I’ve ever made to date: The Nebula Quilt.
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Designed by Jaybird Quilts, this project was an originally introduced a few years ago as a block of the month. What makes Nebula special is its use of the Hex ‘n More, Super Sidekick, regular Sidekick, and mini Hex ‘n More rulers, allowing for a unique blend of shapes like diamonds, half hexagons, hexagons, and triangles. The best part? No tricky Y-seams. Let’s dive into the details!
Fabric Selection
For Nebula, I opted to use the Tula Pink True Colors fabrics that it was designed with. What I love about True Colors is the availability – you can always get your hands on these since it’s Tula’s basics collection. Clothesline Creations in Middlebury, Indiana is a local quilt shop for me. The owner, Penny, is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She was so gracious to cut me a kit for this quilt. She made a few substitutions from the original but having her cut the kit simplied the fabric selection process
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Quilt Design and Block Patterns
Nebula offers flexibility with three size options – lap quilt, queen size, and king size. I went big with the king size, so that I can add this masterpiece to my master bedroom. There is also a bonus pattern for a coordinating pillow using your leftover fabrics. I plan on making a couple of these for accent pillows in the future with my scraps.
Quilt Size Options for Nebula
Nebula’s design is structured around nine distinct block patterns. Each block is made in two different color ways. Using the special rulers turned out to be surprisingly easy. This was a relief because this quilt has a lot of pieces. A LOT of pieces. The fabric cutting was done using strips of fabric though, and with the geometry of the pieces, you simply move down the strip cutting piece after piece, sometimes flipping the ruler around end to end depending on which shape you are cutting. I was absolutely impressed with the rulers by Jaybird Quilts. Sometimes I find specialty rulers can be difficult to learn how to use or to remember how to work with them. This is not the case with these rulers. I did find for ease of use, I preferred to use the smaller sized Sidekick ruler whenever possible.
The original pattern calls for the center diamond blocks to be laid out in a random color pattern. Instead of doing it that way, with help from my daughter, I laid out the diamonds in rainbow order so that the center medallion looks like a color wheel instead.
Backing and Additional Fabric
With such a stunning quilt top, I knew I needed to do something special on the back of the quilt too. Turning the quilt over, I used a 108″ wide backing fabric featuring the whimsical Fairy Dust print by Tula Pink. To add a touch of magic, I incorporated an exclusive Tula Pink panel from ihearttulapink.com – the Night Owl from the Moon Garden collection. Placing the owl panel in the center and framing it with Fairy Dust created a stunning backing that complements the front seamlessly. It appears that this quilt is actually reversible now because the back is just as striking as the front.
Quilting Process
For the quilting, I went with an 80/20 Quilter’s Dream batting in king size and long-armed it on a Handi Quilter Forte. The chosen pantograph, Echoed Swirls by Longarn League, added a beautiful texture and movement to the quilt. What’s impressive is the weight it brought – over a million stitches went into the long arming process, making Nebula a substantial and cozy masterpiece.
Final Thoughts on the Nebula Quilt
In a nutshell, the Nebula Quilt was a joy to create. The blend of design, fabric, and quilting techniques resulted in a quilt that’s not only stunning but also holds sentimental value. I’m thrilled with the outcome and can’t wait to dive into my next quilting adventure. So what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
