A shoofly quilt for my favorite cozy gays

I finished my second quilt last week! This one was a gift for my friends Tom (who just sold his first novel!) and Danny; the two of them just moved into an incredible old farmhouse in upstate New York and I wanted to make them a housewarming present. (Also, Tom works for the ACLU and Danny works in international human rights, so I especially wanted to do something nice for them at this exact moment.)

I used Penelope Handmade’s shoofly pattern again, but I made some changes this time that made the entire process a lot more enjoyable; the biggest difference was that I quilted on the diagonal (meaning the lines get shorter as you work toward the corners, which is nice!) and I sewed fewer lines overall. Ultimately, this one was a lot easier and more pleasant to make than my last shoofly.

This was also my first time making a quilt with more than two fabrics; turns out, ensuring everything works together is a lot harder than it looks, but it’s also a pretty fun process. I decided on a blue, green, gold, and chestnut palette, with chocolate brown for the binding/backing. Since Tom and Danny’s house was first built in the 1790s (!!!), I was aiming for something that felt very Classic Quilt but still modern, and I opted for patterns inspired by their life in the Catskills—so, a mix of flowers, tiny stars, and gingham.

As I rounded the corner on finishing the quilt last week, I panicked a little bit; I suddenly got worried that they weren’t going to like the fabrics I had chosen—like it would feel like my idea of them and their aesthetic versus their own idea of themselves. But they really loved it; Danny had apparently already told Tom that he was hoping to convince me to make them a quilt when Kiyana and I visited, which made me so happy to hear. And we had a great time hanging out with them this weekend; their home is beautiful and they are great hosts, and I just think the world of them! 🧵