Ruby Star Society – Patch + Dot

The Five and Dime quilt pattern is finally here! I’ve had this one under wraps for quite a while so I’m really excited to get it into the world. As usual I’ll start with the inspiration behind the design before getting into the pattern details. Suffice to say I think you’ll have a lot of fun with this one. Its construction is simple and because it’s a one-block pattern, it comes together really quickly.

The story behind the quilt

Quilt inspiration is a funny thing. It’s fair to assume that one of the big drivers behind any pattern is the design of the blocks themselves, but for me there’s always a confluence of influences that inform the whole. For Five and Dime the initial jumping off point was a fabric collection by Ruby Star Society. “Good Spirits” is a collaborative collection that consists of a set of prints evoking the Halloweens of years gone by so tenderly and vividly, I had an almost emotional response to them.

One of my favourite prints in the collection, Scaredy Cats by Sarah Watts in Natural. Image: Ruby Star Society

You know that scene in Arsenic and Old Lace where the kids come to the window in Halloween masks? Or the early Max Fleischer cartoons? How about those late autumn evenings when you find yourself walking alone in the dusk? Maybe it’s along a country road, or maybe in the city, when the streetlights come on and suddenly a tree you’ve walked past a thousand time looks entirely new? It’s all of that. A charming vintage weirdness coupled with glimpses of a hidden world.

And of course I can’t think of Halloween masks without thinking of the heist scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, when Holly and Paul try to steal something from a five and ten.

Holly Golightly: Hey did you ever steal anything from a 5-and-10? When you
were a kid I mean.
Paul Varjak: No. I’m the sensitive, bookish type. Did you?
Holly Golightly: I used to. I still do now and then, sort of to keep my hand in.

When I think back to childhood I feel like a spent an incredible amount of time just staring at the things for sale in corner stores like this “5 cent to 1 dollar” store in the little town where I grew up.

Photo: Linda Seccaspina

This particular Five and Dime had tons of little items displayed in horizontal square cubbies, so that’s the genesis of the block design, with the checkerboards using five pair units each, and the blocks finishing at 10″ x 10″ … five and dime!

The fabric

The cover quilt is made using 13 prints from the Good Spirits collection. This is a collaborative Halloween collection from the gang at Ruby Star Society. I mixed in some Mini Starry in Citron and black, both of which give the moody palette an extra bit of pop.

Quilting

The cover quilt was long arm quilted by Honeybee Quilt Studio, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! The bows are sweet + nostalgic, and she used a bright yellow that works perfectly with the pops of Citron.

For the binding I used this thistle print (below) from Anna Maria Horner’s out of print Pretty Potent collection. And a tip: the throw calls for 5/8″ yard binding fabric but you can squeeze enough out of a half yard if you bump your width down to 2 1/4″ which is what I did here.