Easy Eclipse Quilt Pattern Featuring Applique

Hello Leah’s Quilting Friends! This is Josh in for Leah, and we have a really fun Quilty Box Eclipse project for you today.

First, the story behind the inspiration of this month’s project. As we all know, the United States experienced a total solar eclipse on August 21st, 2017.

The swath of 100% totality ran from northern Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina.

As this is a once in a century / once in a lifetime event, and we only live an hour away from totality, we headed south from the foothills of North Carolina until we reached the 100% zone. We avoided the Interstate and major state highways, sticking to back roads as we meandered south until we were in the path.

We continued south until we found a picturesque abandoned gas station that was right out of a Norman Rockwell exhibit, and we waited and watched as the moon totally eclipsed Sol.

I cannot begin to describe observing and experiencing this incredible phenomenon. We did attempt to document with video and photo stills, but the magic didn’t really come through. You’d think being in the 98 or 99% eclipse zone would be adequate, but that was nothing compared to 100% totality. The moment of total eclipse, when the sun’s corona blazed over the moon like a crackling halo of orange fire, was easily the most amazing natural event I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a short video I took as the clock ticked down to 100% totality.

The sudden onset of darkness really made one appreciate the sheer power of our sun. I know the video is a little disappointing as we were unable to fully capture the corona event, but if you enjoyed both my and James’ antics, I’d love for you to check out my own youtube channel where I share Minecraft videos as well as homesteading and self sustainability information, hosted by myself and sometimes James too. It’s all kid and family friendly so if you have a child or grandchild who loves Minecraft, please check out a video or two.

Now onto the Eclipse Quilt project! We do not have a pattern for you this month, but all information on how to construct this quilt is included in the video below:

This video features Quilty Box – a fun subscription service that delivers quilting tools, supplies, and fabrics each month. Click Here to learn more about this fun monthly subscription package.

It was only natural for Leah to make an eclipse-themed quilt, given the pretty orange, yellow, and red color fabrics in this month’s Quilty Box. Using cutaway applique, this project is super easy and ideal for all quilters who want a quick and fun little project. Watching the video, I think I could even do it!

We begin by stitching around the applique shape and then cut away all the fabric that’s extra. There’s no batting in this project so your machine can easily take the six layers of fabric as you feed the the layers through your machine.

Click Here to watch stitching instructions beginning at 5:38 in the video above.

I really enjoyed watching Leah put this one together, as I first saw the quilt in its finished form and couldn’t believe how fast it was put together. We hope you give this one a try!

We have additional free quilt projects available for you on leahday.com. Please click here to check out over 21 quilt patterns and projects.

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed our solar eclipse video and Leah’s quilt.

Let’s go quilt,

Josh