Sew in Love {with Fabric}: Hummingbird Love

We're adding a little bit more "LOVE" to this Valentine's week with Mischele Hart's "Lovely in Lace" quilt, appearing in the April 2015 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. The quilt features Jackie Robinson's Glorious Hummingbirds collection. And Hummingbird lovers, as well Jackie fans, at the risk of overusing the word "love," there's lots to love here! Keep reading to see what Mischele has to say about her beautiful design.

"Lovely in Lace"

Designed by Mischele Hart. Used with permission from

What appeals to you about the Glorious Hummingbirds fabric line?

The hummingbirds themselves are what initially caught my eye. The activity of these little birds is artfully displayed in the collection. It was really tough to figure out whether to use the darker or lighter color way because both are very appealing.

Tell us about your block design.

Gosh, I might be lazy, but it is really gratifying to get that “set on point” look without dealing with side setting triangles and the other work involved in diagonally setting a quilt top. So I look for a block or piece of a block that can create a visual diagonal line and dink around with it until it is a new block. The curved effect was truly serendipitous. (I love the ease of using Electric Quilt to add and subtract block elements and audition fabrics.)

Can you talk about the more complex-looking center blocks?

I’m intrigued by quilts that appear to have stacked blocks. The idea of combining quarter blocks to get a brand new block seemed like fun, so that was the jumping off point for designing the center blocks. The stacking resulted in only one complete block and several stacked partial blocks. The blocks look complex, but the sewing is easy. That’s a win-win.

Why did you choose to put a blue "outline" around the outside edge of the blocks?

It seemed that there were actually two areas that needed darker, or stronger, color values to emphasize important design elements: (1) the star points in the center of the quilt and (2) the diagonal center line of the border blocks (in order to delineate the edges of the design without adding a pieced border). The color values of the blue and the green create the desired emphasis nicely.

Can you talk about your choice of the hummingbird print for the outer edges?

I had to grin when I read this question. It’s ALL about the hummingbirds for me. I knew I wanted to frame a quilt in a BIG way using the hummingbirds. The challenge was to build a center so that I could get to the border and see those cute birdies.

What do you like best about the quilt?

That’s a hard question to answer. I really appreciate Jackie Robinson’s ability to create awesome fabric collections for all of us in the quilt world to use, so I am always excited to see anything new from her. Also, I really loved the design process. I think this quilt is a future family heirloom.

Tell us about the machine quilting.

The quilting was done by Susan Scheer. It is beautiful, and beautifully done. Susan quilted straight lines in the interior of the quilt to echo the geometric shapes that reside there and then moved on to quilt wonderful hummingbirds on the hummingbird print that encloses and finishes the quilt.