October Featured Maker and Pattern: Solar Slice by Wendy Chow (The Weekend Quilter)

Four collaborators, patterns, and organizations down, and many more amazing modern service quilts to go. We’re on to month five, and we’re so excited to reveal our designer and pattern for October — meet The Weekend Quilter, Wendy Chow!

Wendy’s featured quilt pattern, our October pattern of the month, is Solar Slice. For the month of October, Wendy will be donating 50% of the proceeds from the pattern to Minority Veterans of America (Minority Vets). For this month’s interview, we chatted with Wendy about her collaboration with Modern Service Quilts. Read on!

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your quilting journey?

I’m Wendy, the founder of The Weekend Quilter in New York City. I design modern quilts and write quilt patterns to share my passion for quilting and inspire a new generation of quilters. I’m also the author of Urban Quilting and co-host of a quilting podcast called Quilt Buzz.

My quilting journey began in 2015 in my parents’ dining room. My sister spent her free time there making quilts for friends and family. Watching the process unfold sparked my interest, which led me to teach myself to quilt with the basic sewing skills from my high school home economics class.

I started my Quiltstagram account in 2017 (@the.weekendquilter) as a creative outlet and a way to connect with other quilters to hold me accountable for living a more balanced life between work and play, hence the name The Weekend Quilter.

Today, I have taken a creative career path. You can find my quilt patterns and quilted home goods in my online store. My work has been featured in various craft publications and blogs including Mollie Makes magazine, Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine, LoveCrafts.com, and Fabric.com.

Why did you want to collaborate with Modern Service Quilts?

Generosity and a willingness to help each other is in the DNA of quilters — whether it’s creating quilts to mark a special occasion or milestone in our loved one’s lives; showing honor and appreciation for one another and their efforts; helping those that are in need; giving people a sense of belonging and comfort when they have lost all their personal belongings in a natural disaster, catastrophic event, political conflict, or war; or simply raising money through the sales of quilt patterns and projects to help one another and raise awareness of a cause or movement. Seeing all these acts of love and care from our quilting community is an inspiration.

Modern Service Quilts is an amazing addition to the community. They provide a platform for quilters to channel their inner creativity whilst helping and honoring our veterans and service members. This is why I wanted to collaborate with Modern Service Quilts.

Do you have your own personal connection to the military, service members, or the tradition of making honor quilts?

I don’t have any links or ties to anyone that has served for the country – in the U.S. or back home in Australia. With that said, I’m so grateful for the bravery and all the hard work of the U.S. military, service members, and veterans in protecting the country, its citizens, and freedoms. Moreover, I’m so thankful for their ties and relationships with Australia and all their efforts in helping us.

Although my mum, aunts, and grandma all know how to sew, they never dabbled in quilting. It’s always been garment making and things around the home like bed sheets and curtains. My older sister and I are first-generation quilters in our family. The art of quilting is something I hope to share and pass down to my children (one day) and future generations.

This month, we’re highlighting your Solar Slice quilt pattern. Why do you think this particular design lends itself well to becoming a modern honor quilt?

Solar Slice makes the perfect modern honor quilt. It takes a traditional Sawtooth Star quilt block and slices it up to give it a modern look and appeal. The sliced-up star suggests you don’t need to have a complete Sawtooth Star to know that it is one. The traditional block is highly recognized and continues to be implemented in modern quilt designs.

The repeating stars in the design are reminiscent of the stars on the American flag. The staggered alignment of the stars looks similar to how the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross (a constellation of five stars that can only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere) are arranged in the Australian flag.

Solar Slice is one of my favorite designs as you can have a lot of fun choosing and chopping up different red, white, and blue colored fabrics and prints to make the sliced-up Sawtooth Stars.

Do you have any other patterns you think could work well as honor quilts?

Meteor Shower is the first one that comes to mind. It’s bursting full of Sawtooth Star block fun. There are many ways you could turn this into an honor quilt with the different variations offered in the pattern — one-toned, two-toned, and scrappy stars.

Photo courtesy of Wendy Chow

Another one that comes to mind is my Harlan quilt pattern. I made my first patriotic quilt with that design to mark my first Fourth of July living in the United States. And bonus! It’s a free quilt pattern on my website.

Photo courtesy of Wendy Chow

Do you have any tips for making a quilt pattern appropriate for an honor quilt?

Pick a design you like and have been wanting to try or revisit. It will make the making process more enjoyable. You can’t ever go wrong with star-themed quilts.

When you’re choosing fabrics for your honor quilt, keep in mind the recipient can be anyone. We all have different tastes and preferences. The safest option is to create something that would appease everyone. You can’t go wrong with solids or geometric or low-volume prints.

And remember not to get too emotionally attached to the final project, as it will be going to a new home.

You’ve chosen to support Minority Vets with your Solar Slice pattern sales this month. What led you to choose that particular charity?

Minority Vets is a non-profit organization that provides underrepresented veterans, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and religious minorities, resources and a space where they can feel safe, a sense of belonging, and equal among their peers. I’m choosing to donate to Minority Vets because it resonated with me the most coming from an Asian background.

Wendy, we’re so glad to have you on board, and thank you for sharing this wonderful pattern with our makers! Head to Wendy’s shop to purchase your own copy of the Solar Slice pattern between October 1-31, 2021, and share your wonderful work by tagging Modern Service Quilts (@modernservicequilts, #modernservicequilts) and Wendy on social media: @the.weekendquilter, #theweekendquilter, and #solarslicequilt. We can’t wait to see the beautiful quilts you all make.

If you need information on donating your finished quilt to a veteran, check out this page.

We’ll be back mid-month with more information on the sample quilt we made using Wendy’s pattern, lots of pictures of another Solar Slice made by Wendy herself, and some fun mockups of the quilt in different color schemes. Until then, be sure to follow us on Instagram for lots more photos and information and sign up for our email newsletter below.