Asymmetrical Symmetry: Jinx’s Modern Quilt

In any group, there are a few backbones that keep the community together. In our family crew, Jinx is one of those backbones. 10 years ago when I brought home my now-husband for the first time, I knew he was going to be overwhelmed by the 70+ family members, all of whom show their interest in fresh blood through probing questions and joking jabs. It’s quite the scene to come in to, especially as a 20 year old. In the midst of this chaos, it was Jinx who welcomed him most openly – avoiding the probing and teasing, but asking engaging questions and truly trying to get to know him off the bat. She somehow manages to maintain that thoughtful relationship with each of us – approaching everyone as a unique individual and yet pulling the whole group together. The backbone.

Jinx and I had fun working on the design of this quilt together – sending colors and design ideas back and forth. She wanted simple colors (blue and white) and symmetry, but with a modern twist. Given her role in our motley crew, it’s amazing that the quilt ended up the pattern it did; it reminds me so much of a backbone.

This quilt is inspired by Sarah Nishiura’s beautiful quilt. My favorite part of this quilt is the variations of white. I pulled every white I had out of the shelf, and even raided a few quilt stores for scraps of white patterns. From afar it looks more or less solid, but when you get close you see 4 different kids of polkadots, snowflakes, zig zags, flowers and everything in between. It surely was a lot more work than sticking with one fabric (but worth it!).

I started with piles upon piles of white scraps in different lengths, which I turned into one very long train of white and then re-cut to strips of the exact same size. I cut the blue right-angle triangles to different sizes, then pieced them into each strip.

And then had way too much fun laying them out to find the right balance of color and size:

The result is a very balanced and beautiful quilt, with complexity when you get up close. Perfect for the owner-to-be!

It’s quilted with vertical straight lines at varying widths to mirror the consistent inconsistency of the pattern:

And the back has one strip of varying whites with three triangles:

Final product in its home!