I Love This Quilt: Clarkson Crossing

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In her latest I Love This Quilt feature, Gigi Levsen puts a fresh spin on the Clarkson Crossing quilt. Keep reading to discover her creative reimagining and the inspiration behind this stunning design.

Have you been enjoying the Winter 2025 issue of McCall’s Quilting? It’s out now in digital and print editions. Now that gift-making time is squarely upon us, you may want to check it out and get some ideas for holiday décor, gift giving, or simply to stoke the festive fire of your Christmas Spirit!

It’s stuffed with sensational seasonal quilt projects of all sorts, along with plenty of snuggly quilt patterns that look so appealing as the weather gets chilly. One of the patterns in the magazine is from the archives and I made a new, updated version of it for our regular I Love This Quilt feature, where we select an old, favorite pattern to remake.

The original *Clarkson Crossing* by Julia LaBauve and Tammy Silvers.

Using our classic Clarkson Crossing pattern, designed by Julia LaBauve and Tammy Silvers, I made a new quilt top, using The Ombre Confetti collection by V & Co. for Moda Fabrics, as this line of fabric can make every pattern pretty exciting. The pattern has lots of long strips to make the blocks, and there are only two blocks. You make three of each block, plus 3 horizontal sashes and pieced, mitered borders. When everything is sewn together it looks like strips of fabric are weaving under and over another, even across the borders! It’s so cool and modern looking, while being so quick and simple to sew.

The main thing I had to figure out when I started is how exactly to use my ombre fabric to best advantage. I essentially assigned each print in the pattern a corresponding color from my new fabrics and just laid out the first two blocks to see how I liked the placement.

The first block layout. I think there are too many dark hues grouped together so I’m going to spread them out a bit.

If you look closely, you can see that the strips are actually piles of strips, so once I finalize my decisions, I can start sewing the blocks together right away. You may notice I made a small but significant change to the construction of both blocks; for the longest strips that run across the length and width of the blocks, I made that strip a single patch, rather than piecing it as the pattern does. So, for example, instead of cutting a black 16½” strip, and 2 black 4½” squares, I cut one black strip at 24½” long. I wanted as few seams as possible to avoid breaking up the print.

The block on the left is better, but now the magenta and purple in the right block are too close in color and value.

I swapped a strip or two once everything was laid out to optimize the color placement. I went through a few options to get to my final choice. Then I could just start sewing strips together! Wherever two strips of the same color are sewn together, like for the borders, I tried to match the same part of the print on the adjoining patches so that it looks like a single strip sitting on top of the piecing.

OK, back to the original layout for the right block. But it seems to work better with the updated left block!

Once I finalized the block layouts, I could move onto the pieced horizontal sashes that act as a transition between blocks, and as an additional design element by introducing a new fabric. The chartreuse really makes the jewel tones pop, I think!

If I had followed my fabric swap faithfully, that chartreuse square on the far right would be pink! I like it better this way.

On the center sash I made a change from the original pattern and put a chartreuse square on one edge, instead of a pink one, simply because I would have had to cut a whole extra pink strip just to get one square. So impractical! And the chartreuse looks great. No one would have ever noticed the swap if I hadn’t mentioned it.

And the finished quilt top! OMG, I Love This Quilt!

As a long twin size quilt, this pattern is perfect for making a personalized dorm quilt. The options for personalizing the design are pretty much endless; the wide, long strips are great for showing off novelty prints that reflect someone’s personality. Stripes would be so cool, too! It can be hard to look past the fabrics and colors in a featured quilt to see all the design possibilities contained within the construction, but it’s well worth it! Quilt patterns can tell one how to make a specific quilt, certainly, but also provide opportunities to make dozens of unique, beautiful, one-of-a-kind quilts; the only limit is your imagination (and your fabric stash, LOL!).

Happy quilting!

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