Blue: Harmony

Blue represents harmony in Gilbert Baker's Pride flag, the idea that different people, different lives, different ways of loving can coexist. For this quilt, I wanted to build that idea into the structure itself.

The design features nine "wonky pineapple" blocks. The pineapple block is a traditional quilting pattern, but I made each one deliberately imperfect, wonky. Every block uses the same basic components assembled in its own distinct way, and together they form a single giant star. My idea with using a queer version of these familiar blocks is to symbolize the idea that we are all made up of essentially the same pieces, with each of us in our own distinct way coming together to create a harmonious and unified whole.

The Pattern

Traditional pineapple blocks are precise, symmetrical, mathematical. Mine aren't. Each one deviates from the pattern in a different direction. Some lean left, some twist, some have uneven strips. When you stand back and see all nine together, the deviations become the design. The star only works because the blocks aren't identical.

There's something satisfying about a quilt pattern that needs imperfection to function. Harmony, in Baker's sense, was never about sameness. It was about difference held together.

Materials

The back of the quilt is hand-dyed fabric from Bex and Luke, a rich, variegated blue that shifts across the surface. Hand-dyed backing felt right for a quilt about the relationship between individual variation and collective unity. No two sections of the dye are exactly the same colour, but it all reads as one cloth.

Part of the Colours of Pride series.