Sunset Matrix quilt blends clean lines with joyful color

Some quilts come together effortlessly, like they were simply waiting to be made. This was exactly the feeling I had when pairing the irresistible new Golden Hour fabric collection from Ruby Star Society with the Locus quilt pattern from the Stripology Squared book by Gudrun Erla of GE Designs. I had been drawn to both independently, and once I saw the rhythm of the simple geometric quilt pattern paired with the warmth and whimsy of the Golden Hour fabrics, I knew it was a match made in sunset heaven.

The Fabrics: Golden Hour Magic

If you’re not familiar with Golden Hour, it’s a fabric collection that manages to feel earthy and modern all at once. Designed by Alexia Marcelle Abegg, the palette is absolutely everything. Sun-drenched yellow and ochre, rich siennas and reds, soft lilac pink and mauve, taupe and cream, and blues that are so soft they are somehow also warm and toasty (how does she do that?).

One of the things I love most about this collection is its versatility. Despite some happy suns, the prints feel ageless and timeless, and the rainbow feels sophisticated rather than crayon box (although you know I have nothing against a crayon box rainbow). The florals are simple, in Alexia Abegg’s signature folk style, like you might find them in a bandana print or stamped with wood blocks.

Each of the prints serves as a blender really, a print so subtle that it reads as a solid color. These are a bit different, as you can tell that they are prints, but from a distance, what really stands out is the color. Which is why I opted to create this gradient in color order, rather than a more random fabric placement.

The Locus Pattern: Piecing and Process

The Locus quilt pattern is a strip-based design found in Stripology Squared, a book full of clever, efficient quilts built around precut 10" squares, often called Layer Cakes. As someone who loves both modern quilt designs and also efficiency, precuts, sewing hacks, and chain piecing are favorite tools in my arsenal, and these patterns offer all three.

Locus has a visually striking effect created by the two different sizes of rectangle in each block, like a sort of 3D structure or a digital glitch maybe. This led me to call this the Sunset Matrix quilt. A very geometric and architectural quilt pattern in a serene warm sunset of fabrics with organic and folk motif prints.

Rather than 10” squares, this was actually pieced from scraps, by which I don’t mean discarded fabrics! Heaven forbid. These treasured prints?! Never. By “scraps,” I just mean odd sized cuts of fabrics that I purchased as a set. Usually this is the leftover pieces on a bolt of fabric after Fat Quarters or exact yardage has been cut, or maybe incorrectly cut pieces that now can’t be sold. So I had “scraps” of the collection, which actually gave me a lot of creative power.

Where I had scraps of neutral fabrics from the collection, I replaced my background fabrics so that the background is not a solid light color but rather an array of tones, which gives it a little sparkle, like sunlight filtered through tree leaves. If you look closely, you can see that even some light blues and grays were used in place of the white, cream and taupe of the background.

Quilting and Finishing the Sunset Matrix

Months after taking these gorgeous photos of this quilt top, during golden hour, next to my friendly local sundial art installation, the listing is now live in the Handmade Shop!

The beautiful photos I took outside at sunset are of only the quilt top for the Sunset Matrix. But you should know: it’s not a quilt unless it’s quilted!

So I sandwiched the top with my go-to Quilter’s Dream Bamboo Batting and the lilac Daisy print from the collection as the backing. I also used a sunset rainbow of coordinating thread colors to free-motion quilt some repeated arches to give it a playful vibe and quirk it up a little bit. The bright yellow thread was my favorite. It practically glows.

I used several different white fabrics with metallic gold accents as the binding.

how fun does it look with some bold blue tie-dyed pillows?

I love to see photos of my quilts in their real life homes, but I don’t always know where they end up. But I like to imagine this in a bedroom, though it is often carried from location to location, for sunset picnics, etc. I see natural wood, lots of indoor plants, and a westward facing window.