All About Rosehips

I’m happy that my first official pattern turned out to be rose-related. I didn’t plan it this way, but I’m glad to pay homage to this place that I love: I’ve lived in Portland, Oregon (the “City of Roses”) for thirteen years, constantly intrigued by its balance of elegance and edginess. The city bursts forth in spring - a festival of color, art, fragrance & texture! - but I really think it becomes more of itself on the comedown. When the petals drop and the rains return, we’re left with something gritty, introspective and remarkably immune to the elements.

Rosehips begin to appear in late summer and linger long after blooms fade away. They become ornaments of the undergrowth, brightening winter with shades of blood and persimmon, and provide a much-needed stable source of nutrition for native wildlife. Human use of rosehips has been widely noted since ancient times when, considered sacred, they were fashioned into rosary beads. Their exceptionally high vitamin C and antioxidant content makes them a prime ingredient in traditional medicines and skincare. Culinary use lends a floral sweet-tart taste to jams, syrups, shrubs and teas. Simply put, roses have so much to offer beyond the bloom - but leave the unprocessed fruit for the birds: rosehips contain tiny, irritating hairs and seeds that must be removed before consumption.

Months later during Pattern Writing Academy, I saw them again - but this time, it was while experimenting in PreQuilt! As I clicked and rotated, a familiar shape came together - round and ripe on one end, fine and spiky on the other. Then, the thorns and a central stem. Give it about seven months of sewing, drafting, and testing... and here we are - Rosehips from Rose City! 

T H E   P A T T E R N

When designing Rosehips, I wanted to create a pattern that was accessible to confident beginners but still had a refined end result. It’s no secret that I love curves (and think you should, too!) - Elegance? Check. Worthwhile technique? Check. I found that combining modified Drunkard’s Path units with only one other unit (single-patch squares) kept construction simple, and rotating the blocks produced a beautiful medallion.

The Rosehips pattern is available in three sizes - Baby (39” square), Throw (65” square) and Bed (91” square). The design is the same for all, with size options based on 3” (baby), 5” (throw) and 7” (bed) finished patch sizes. The fabric requirements include a tiny bit of overage  - about 1 WOF strip, for most colors - just in case you’d rather remake than unpick a fussy unit, or use your scraps to spice up your backing or binding.

The heart of the pattern includes detailed instructions so you can skill-build with confidence! I specifically describe how to:

• cut template shapes from fabric,
• sew curves using the three-pin method, and
• construct your border using the method preferred by longarmers (and anyone who wants to minimize waviness and reduce distortion of their quilt top!).

C O L O R    I N S P I R A T I O N

The pattern also includes a coloring page and three solid colorway mockups - Late Summer (the cover quilt), Harvest and Frost. Because the units and blocks are rotated during construction, this pattern really works best with solid fabrics, although low-volume or non-directional prints could work as well. One of my favorite ways to add interest to solid color quilts is to swap some cottons with similar woven or linen hues!

Can we ever get enough color inspiration? I could stare at color palettes all day! Here’s a few more colorways with complete fabric lists:

T H E   C O V E R   Q U I L T

My 65” square throw-size cover quilt uses all Kona cotton in Deep Rose, Garnet, Ivy, Artichoke, Evening and Natural. I’m partial to Quilter’s Dream Select for a light-midweight batting. It’s backed with Kona Natural for simplicity, and bound with Essex linen in Denim. Quilting was done by Favorite Day Quilting using Longarm League’s White Space pantograph - I just love how it echoes the curves and points in the patchwork!