New Pattern: Safety Dance!

I’ve got a new quilt pattern that I’ve been working on for months behind the scenes, and I’m so excited to share it with you!

Safety Dance is a skill-builder suitable for advanced beginners. I walk you through creating Half Rectangle Triangles and working with partial seams to create this dynamic block-based quilt.

Why Safety Dance?

Take a little journey with me…if you’ve traveled by commercial airplane, when you head down the jetway from the terminal to get on the plane, you’ve probably seen a sign like this:

In our family, it’s a running joke that the sign is actually commanding you to dance - do you see it?

Flash forward to me doing some digital sketching…when I came up with this block, the “arms” that seem to radiate from the center immediately reminded me of the dancing person on the safety sign. So there you have it: Safety Dance!

The pattern comes in 4 sizes: Baby, Throw, Twin, and Queen. You can use 3 or 4 fabrics to play around with an ombre look, or go scrappy or use Fat Quarters for a multicolor version. The center squares finish at 3” - making this a great pattern to feature some fussy cut patterns, or that charm pack you’ve been saving for just the right project.

The first version I made used 4 different shades of turquoise/teal in Alison Glass Kaleidoscope cottons (RIP) and AG Pure Solids in one of my favorite colors, Zambia Stone. For the back, I used some prints from my stash to create a giant version of the block! This was my first time securing the binding with big stitching, and I am a total convert - I love how the 8wt perle cotton looks, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to work with (using some Carolyn Friedlander Sew Fine thread gloss certainly helped). I brought it to the pool one evening before the current heat wave and now will forever associate it with the cool blues of a summer evening at the pool!

I also made a throw size with a Halloween theme! I wanted to use a Ruby Star Society Tiny Frights charm pack I’d been saving, and then selected fabrics to work with them: Libs Elliott Glaze, Giucy Giuce Motley, and Ruby Star Society Speckled by Rashida Coleman-Hale.

Finally, I made a super scrappy version, all from my stash - you can see how three fabrics (FQs will do!) create coordinating pairs of blocks. The layout options are endless - keep your pairs together or arrange them randomly!

I’ve generally stuck with light/medium/dark shades of the same hue for my blocks, but you certainly don’t have to; as long as you’ve got enough contrast between each of your 3 or 4 fabrics, it will work! I’ve found when playing in QuiltInk that when I use a variety of colors within a block, the secondary patterns (the alternating color vertical and horizontal diamonds) stand out a lot more.

My friend Hilary made TWO samples while testing the pattern for me! I love the way she uses prints in both, and she added some bonus sashing as well. You can see how the grey sample has less contrast between the fabrics, which makes for a beautifully subtle, calming effect. The bright floral centers in her blue version really POP! and make for a vibrant, cheerful quilt.

Ready to start planning your own version?

Safety Dance is on QuiltInk, an online coloring tool - check out some of the mockups below and create your own here!

I can’t wait to see what you create! Be sure to tag me @sewistry_nc in any of your Safety Dance projects and use the hashtags #SafetyDanceQuilt and #SewistryQuiltPatterns !