I honestly cannot believe I am typing these words right now, but the officially licensed Night Court quilt pattern is now available in my shop!
Now, let's back up and talk about how this pattern came to be.
A Bookish Love
I first fell in love with Sarah J Maas' words in 2016. It was around November or December of that year that I found her books, A Court of Thorns and Roses specifically. I devoured that book faster than any other book before, so I moved onto the second book A Court of Mist and Fury immediately.
I was an avid reader well before then, but I can honestly say ACOMAF was the first book I finished, and immediately started to read again. The characters and their journeys, the world, everything about this book spoke to me in a way no other book had before.
Since then, I've gone on to read every single one of SJM's books, most of them multiple times. I've lost count how many times I've read ACOMAF at this point. And I tell everyone to read these books if they haven't because I just love them so much.
The Licensing
Because I talk about these books so much, I've been asked in the past if I'd ever design an ACOTAR inspired quilt and I've always wanted to. It's been in the back of my mind to do this for years. Truth is, I'm emotionally attached to these books and it would've killed me a little bit to see a design out there that wasn't just right. I knew what my idea of just right was and one day I put it on Illustrator.
Then I shared it with some friends like "oh look, this will probably never happened but isn't it fun". At the end of day, I knew if I did this, I'd need to reach out for licensing and I wasn't sure if that was in the cards for me.
tl;dr: in order to design a quilt pattern that is a direct reflection of SJM's intellectual property, in this case the symbol of the Night Court as described in the books, I'd need to receive official licensing from her team, or risk receiving a cease and desist for copyright infringement.
So I sat on the design for months, until one day I said "YOLO" and sent the email to SJM's team. Could I have named this quilt something different or changed it so it was just "different enough" not to need the licensing? Sure. But I wanted to do this the right way so after hitting send on the email, I began my wait.
[below you can see the original mockup I sent for licensing]
And I waited, and waited, and waited.
I waited to the point that I thought it was a no from SJM's team. All of the licensed products I've seen up until now have been finished products, and this was a pattern for others to make something, so I figured they weren't authorizing it.
But then in late August I heard back and it was a yes. I had some additional questions, and we hammered out the licensing contract and I officially had permission to release this pattern in September.
However, all I had at this point was my illustrator sketches and not a complete pattern–I had a full schedule with Garden of Quilts and Quilt Market, so I had to move some things around, but today, on what's my shop's 6th anniversary I am releasing the Night Court quilt pattern.
Night Court Quilt Pattern Details
Now for the details on the pattern!
The Night Court quilt pattern includes two sizes: wall hanging and throw size, and uses yardage (not precuts, nor FQs) for the fabric.
The mountains are pieced together using 60º triangles–the pattern does include paper templates, but you can also use a 60º ruler if you have one.
The three stars are pieced using foundation paper piecing, which was scary! I considered other design options that would've allowed for traditional machine piecing, but I really wanted these shapes so FPP it was. Thankfully, they are very easy to piece together, I promise!
I wrote tutorials for both of these techniques, if you need them.
- 60º triangles tutorial
- FPP tutorial
Fabric and Quilting
When it came to creating the cover quilt for this pattern, I debated for a long time which fabrics to use. Truth be told, I wanted to include some purples but since I used purples on the Wall Hanging sample, I opted not to in order to showcase a slightly different color palette.
So, I opted for a dark background / sky for this sample since this is the night court, and I stuck with blues for the mountains to maintain a clean color palette that still read nighttime-ish. For the stars, I went with yellows in order to bring in some warmth to the overall palette.
For the quilting, I knew I'd be sending this out to Ashley of Hen House Quilting before I even started piecing the quilt. Ashley is a fellow ACOTAR fan and in my heart, it simply had to be her that quilted this for me. For the panto, I piecked Celestial Sky by Mistletoe Quilting Co which is just perfect for this quilt since it's reminiscent of Feyre's back tattoo. Ashley sent me some pictures of the quilt when it was still on her machine and I gasped. It looks just so, so good!
For the backing, I used the Eclipse print from my Moonchild fabric collection in "Midnight". It continues the night time theme, and has subtle metallic touches that pair perfectly with the theme and stars on the quilt design.
Overall, I can honestly say I LOVE how this quilt came out. I love this quilt pattern and it just feels incredible to have this out in the world! I cannot wait to see all the Night Court quilts on reading nooks!
Quilt Information
Pattern: Night Court by Cotton and Joy
Fabric: Confetti Cotton Solids in Aqua, Peacock, Navy, Iceberg, and Denim (mountains), Golden and Beehive (stars), and Charcoal (background).
Quilted by Ashley Perkins of Hen House Quilting
Panto: Celestial Sky by Mistletoe Quilting Co