The Escapist Quilt
The Escapist Quilt pattern is here!
In this design, I loved creating the imagery of breaking free, which is why this pattern’s working title was actually “Outside the Box,” but this shifted to the concept of an escape artist breaking out of confinement, which eventually led to the name “Escapist.” This pattern is fun, comes together fast, and, hopefully, can teach you a new skill or two in the process.
There are two variations on this quilt pattern. The Original version is an intermediate pattern that uses diagonal border seams and mitered corners to create the imagery of the “V” pattern escaping from the quilt. The Simplified version has traditional borders that merge with the half square triangles in a way that makes the top most triangle appear to be escaping out of the top of the quilt. Both versions offer unique opportunities to play around with color in your fabrics and imagination in your quilting.
In the cover color way, I was inspired by these rich, bright, modern colors, and I found that this pattern is perfect for a good color gradient. For the cover quilt, I used Kona Cotton solids in Haze, Seafoam, Sage, Everglade, and Indigo. If you’d like to make this colorway yourself, get the quilt kit from my shop! For quilters outside of the United States, get the original kit from Piece Fabric Co.!
If you prefer Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids, I recommend Light Grey, Tender Green, Warm Wave, Zambia Stone, and Nocturnal.
I quilted the Escapist Quilt on my home machine using a variety of Aurifil thread colors to match the color gradient used in the quilt. The haze and indigo blocks at the bottom were quilted in a “square” to keep with the idea of the “V” escaping from the boundaries of the quilt. And to finish, I used matching fabrics and bound my quilt using what I’m calling the “infinity binding” technique to further continue the colors in the “V” right out to the edges.
In figuring out sizing, I originally made the wall hanging much larger, around 30” x 30", but quickly realized that it would make the perfect pillow! So I scaled down the blocks and included envelope pillow cover instructions in the pattern. Below you can see my original wall hanging size alongside the updated pillow size (20” x 20”). This pattern is also available in throw size (70” x 70”) and bed size (100” x 100”).
Recommended Tools
This pattern is fairly straightforward, with no special tools needed. However, if you’re making the Baby, Throw, or Bed sizes, those blocks are fairly large (especially the Throw, which are 15 inches when finished!). So I highly recommend a larger square ruler like this 16-1/2 inch Square Ruler from Creative Grids, which is very helpful when trimming those large half square triangles!
Escapist Tester Quilts
Now, if you’re in need of some inspiration, check out all of the gorgeous versions created by my amazing group of testers!
A few of these variations are available as quilt kits, so click the links below to make your own.
by Katie from @crestview.quilts
by Justine from @greatheronthreadco
available as a quilt kit from her shop at Great Heron Thread Co.
by Steph from @bookendsquilting
available as a quilt kit from Pasadena Quilt Studio
by Macy from @macys_makes
available as a quilt kit from Tree House Quilting Co.
by Ellen from @ellenrosequilts
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