The Story Behind Patchwork Playground

How music changed the way I think about quilt design

I thought it would be fun to share the story behind Patchwork Playground quilt book because, while it may look like a quilting book on the outside, its premise began long before I ever picked up a rotary cutter or even used a sewing machine.

Most people know me as a quilt designer, but before quilting became such a big part of my life, I was a clarinet performance major in conservatory. I spent six or seven hours a day in a practice room preparing for orchestral auditions, studying the classical works of great composers, and learning the theory behind what makes music sound harmonious and timeless. Even before that, I knew I wanted to become a teacher, so it feels like life came full circle when I eventually joined the Boise Philharmonic and started teaching elementary music in the public schools.

During those conservatory years, I became fascinated by how composers could put musical ideas down on paper and have them brought to life through instruments and the interpretations of musicians hundreds of years later. Mozart, Brahms, Debussy, and Stravinsky, for example, each had their own distinct sound and style, yet every one of them created music using the same twelve notes of the western musical system we know today. Fast forward to contemporary and popular music, and we still hear chord progressions that have existed for centuries. The building blocks haven’t changed, but the ways in which we combine them have evolved.

Years later, as I started learning about quilting and creating patterns, I could see that the same principle exists here, too.

Quilters all have access to the same traditional techniques: half-square triangles, flying geese, strip piecing, stitch-and-flip, and so many others. Yet from those familiar building blocks come an incredible variety of quilts, each with its own personality and style. Creativity doesn’t have to come from inventing an entirely new technique. It can also be found in how we combine the techniques we already know. In a way, I feel like a composer of shapes and patterns, sharing a blueprint that quilters can interpret through the colors and fabrics they choose.

This idea has shaped my approach to quilt design, and it ultimately became the foundation for Patchwork Playground.

Quilt Blocks, Traditional Piecing, and Quilt Math Are Our Musical Vocabulary

Just as musicians practice scales and study harmony to better understand the music they perform, quilters build a foundation by learning traditional piecing techniques and understanding quilt math. That’s the philosophy behind Patchwork Playground.

The book includes a coordinated library of 34 mix-and-match quilt blocks, along with refreshers on traditional piecing techniques, approachable quilt math to help you calculate fabric requirements, cutting guides, and ideas for planning your own layouts. Rather than simply giving you another quilt pattern to follow, I wanted the book to give you the tools to confidently choose your own blocks, experiment with layouts, and create quilts that reflect your own creativity.

Teaching Music Shaped the Way I Teach Quilting

Teaching elementary music has shaped the way I think about creativity. I don’t expect my students to create music that all sounds the same or that matches a specific sound I have in my mind. Instead, my goal is to give them a strong foundation and a simple framework that allows them to express themselves in their own unique way. Within the parameters I set, every child creates something a little different and, hopefully, something that reflects who they are and what they want to express.

And I want quilting to feel the same way for all of my quilting friends.

The quilts featured in Patchwork Playground aren’t meant to be the end goal, but rather examples of what’s possible. My hope isn’t that you make my quilts, but that you gain the confidence to create quilts that are unmistakably your own.

My Hope for Patchwork Playground

More than anything, that’s what I hope Patchwork Playground becomes for you. Not just another quilt book on your shelf, but a resource you return to whenever you’re wondering, “What if I tried this layout instead?” or “What if I combined these two blocks?”

I hope it gives you the confidence to experiment, trust your instincts, and discover that quilt design is far more approachable than it might first appear.

Patchwork Playground is now available and if you order through Sweet Potato Quilts, you’ll receive a signed copy.

I can’t wait to see what you create.

Happy quilting,

Christina