Bookmarks Quilt Pattern - The Between the Pages one

 There is a brand new quilt pattern in the block–Meet Bookmarks!

The Bookmarks quilt pattern is beginner friendly, perfect for showcasing
your favorite fabric and has two fabric options: layer cakes or fat quarters!

I am so excited to finally be sharing Bookmarks with all of you. I say "finally" because this pattern has been in the works for well over a year... maybe even 3 years? So, let's back up a little... 

Bookmarks was first born as an idea back in 2021 when I first signed with Riley Blake Designs as a fabric designer. My very first collection was supposed to be a book-inspired collection but due to some other conflicts, we shelved that idea and moved forward with Daybreak. But I already had 3-4 quilt pattern ideas to go along with the collection, one of them being Bookmarks.

In the end this change in collections worked well and Daybreak was a huge success, but the idea of a book inspired collection was always in the back of my mind, as something I wanted to go back to and do. After a couple of years, I felt ready to go back to it and explore this theme in a collection, and Between the Pages was born. 

Once we had the collection finalized, it was time for me to add the quilt patterns to go with the collection. I looked back through the folder of pattern ideas on my laptop and Bookmarks immediately jumped out at me. 

Below is the initial mockup – from back in 2021. 

While I loved the general idea, I saw some issues with it that needed updating. Proportions were off. It wasn't precut friendly and the FQ option left a lot of waste. I also wasn't loving the upside down bookmarks. So I opened a new Illustrator file and got to work. 

I changed the proportions and got the blocks working with all of the fabric options I wanted. I also made all of the bookmarks right side up, and instead off-set the columns to add movement to the overall quilt design. Once I had the design finalized, I started making mockups... alllll of the mockups.

I always like to do a few in solid colors first to make sure a quilt design works in a variety of color groups. Then, once I move onto doing a mockup with prints. This step was specially important since this pattern would go with my fabric collection, and this is when I knew I had a winner.

Layer Cake Quilt

As soon as I saw the mockup of this pattern in the prints, I knew I had a winner. I wanted to make this quilt right away. I couldn't stop staring at it and how cute and cozy it looked - even on a computer screen! 

But then I had to wait a year to get the fabric on my hands to bring this quilt to life. I won't lie, it wasn't an easy wait. I've been wanting to make this quilt for so long, but the wait was worth it!

Since I wanted this quilt to showcase my newest fabric collection, Between the Pages, I chose to use a Layer Cake to make make it. This meant I could have every single print of the collection on the quilt–some of them twice! The final layout is a little different from the initial mockup since I had to go off what prints what doubled, and which didn't, in the layer cake pack, but I ADORE how this quilt came out! 

Wavy Quilting

Due to time constraints in my schedule, I wasn't able to send this quilt to a long-arm quilter so I quilted it myself on my Janome M8. I went back and forth on the best way to quilt this for a while. I considered going with my trusty straight-line quilting 3/4" apart, but I also wanted to soften the overall look of the quilt.

So, in the end I decided to go with the wavy quilting option on my Janome. This specific stitch is under "Decorative Quilt Stitch", and it's the Serpentine stitch. I upped my stitch length to 3.00 for the softer waves. This stitch is slower than straight quilting, but it was the perfect complement to the overall feel of the quilt. I love how the whole quilt looks soft and cuddly!

I'm so so proud of how this quilt came out and I hope you love this pattern as much as I do! 

Quilt Information

Quilt Pattern: Bookmarks by Cotton and Joy
Quilt Top Fabric: Between the Page (Layer Cake) and Confetti Cottons in White [Preorder the kit here!]
Backing: Confetti Cottons in Iceberg 
Binding: Confetti Cotton Solids in Honey
Pieced and Quilted on my Janome M8

Purchase the Pattern