The Patron Saint Quilt Coloring Book

The Patron Saint Quilt Coloring Book: Featuring 22 Holy Women 

A couple of months ago, I saw an ad on Facebook encouraging people to use AI to make coloring books to make easy money. A lot about that ad made me sigh, but I was intrigued about the idea of making a coloring book. I thought about these old patron saint quilt patterns. Could I make a coloring book out of them (without using AI) so that people could learn about these saints and appreciate the symbols used to represent them, even if they weren’t quilters? It turned out I could!

I had fun putting this coloring book together, which combines my love of saints and quilting. I hope both children and adults will enjoy coloring these unique quilt designs in honor of the Blessed Mother, St. Anne, St. Barbara, St. Bernadette, St. Brigid, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Clare, St. Elizabeth, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Faustina, St. Gianna, St. Kateri, St. Margaret Mary, St. Maria Goretti, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Monica, St. Rita, St. Rose, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and St. Zélie. Each two-page spread includes a short biography of the saint in addition to the quilt designs.

I’m sharing a PDF download of the coloring sheets for the Blessed Mother for free: http://bit.ly/3UWRUdn

 

 

The physical coloring book is available on Amazon. A digital download may be purchased through Teachers Pay Teachers. For those who purchase the coloring book in either form, I give permission to reproduce the pages for home or classroom use.

Quilt Block in Honor of St. Bernadette

St. Bernadette was born at Lourdes, France. Her parents were very poor and she herself was in poor health. One Thursday, February 11, 1858, when she was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, a very beautiful Lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle. The lovely Lady was dressed in blue and white. She smiled at Bernadette and then made the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold.

Bernadette fell on her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray the rosary. The beautiful Lady was God's Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. She appeared to Bernadette seventeen other times and spoke with her. She told Bernadette that she should pray sinners, do penance and have a chapel built there in her honor. Many people did not believe Bernadette when she spoke of her vision. She had to suffer much.

But one day Our Lady told Bernadette to dig in the mud. As she did, a spring of water began to flow. The next day it continued to grow larger and larger. Many miracles happened when people began to use this water. When Bernadette was older, she became a nun. She was always very humble. More than anything else, she desired not to be praised. Once a nun asked her if she had temptations of pride because she was favored by the Blessed Mother. "How can I?" she answered quickly. "The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant."

From http://www.catholic.org

St. Bernadette's symbol is a lily, for her purity, but seeing as I already created a quilt block with a lily in honor of our Blessed Mother, I needed to come up with a different symbol for this one. I've tried to create a version of the grotto at Lourdes.

To download the Free pattern for this 12" x 12" quilt block, please visit Quilt Block in Honor of St. Bernadette

Quilt Block in Honor of St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a prominent Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be a founder of the Discalced Carmelites along with John of the Cross.

In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV and was in 1970 named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Her best-known writing is "The Interior Castle."

Her symbols are a heart, arrow, and books.

 For this 12" x 12" quilt block, I chose to create two intersecting arrows to represent St. Teresa's most well-known mystical experience. As she wrote, "He pierced my heart with the arrow of His love." The red in the center represents her heart. The brown field is representative of the Carmelite order.

Please click here to download the free pattern for this block: Quilt Block in Honor of St. Teresa of Avila.

Quilt Block in Honor of St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalene was one of the earliest followers of Christ. She is known as the Apostle to the Apostles because Jesus appeared to her after his Resurrection, and she then went to tell the Apostles.

Throughout history, she has been known as the repentant sinner, and her symbols are a skull or a jar. While you can certainly make a quilt block that looks like a skull (they have Halloween blocks that include this), I decided to go with a jar design as it is a better fit for the quilt I am working on.

This 12" x 12" block has several pieces but it works up easily enough. If you want a different color scheme, you can certainly use one. You just need to adjust the shades accordingly in order to keep the 3D illusion of the jar.

Download the Free pattern here: Quilt Block in Honor of St. Mary Magdalene

Quilt Block in Honor of St. Anne

St. Anne is one of my favorite saints. I pray to her every day to help me in my parenting and in my writing. She was the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus. She is often symbolized by a book because she was Mary's first teacher. She is also frequently symbolized by a lily because of the purity of her daughter.

In this 12" x 12" quilt block, I have combined these symbols. I have incorporated two lilies along with a book. I have also used a blue field in honor of Mary, and used purple for the book in honor of Jesus.

To download the free pattern for this block: Quilt Block in Honor of St. Anne

Quilt Block in Honor of St. Brigid of Ireland

St. Brigid of Ireland is one of Ireland's patron saints, along with St. Patrick and St. Columba. Living in the 5th and 6th centuries, she was an Irish nun who founded several monasteries, including the one at Kildare with which she is most associated.

This 12" x 12" quilt block is based on the symbol of St. Brigid's Cross. It is an easy pattern -consisting of all straight pieces. To download the free pattern, please click here: Quilt Block in Honor of St. Brigid

Quilt Block in Honor of St. Therese

 St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 - 1897) has always been one of my favorite saints. My sister was named after her and my mother always considered her both of our patron saints. I first read her autobiography Story of a Soul when I was eight or nine years old and have read it several times since. Each time, I garner some new perspective on life and living her little way.

St. Therese said "I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven, doing good on earth." In art, she is often portrayed with a cross and roses so for this 12' x 12" quilt block I have a cross set on the diagonal, with four roses emanating from the center.


 

This block would make a lovely repeating pattern for a quilt. If one wished, one could alternate the color of the roses, the cross, or the background to add some additional contrast or visual interest.

To download the free pattern, please click here: Quilt Block in Honor of St. Therese

Quilt in Honor of Blessed Miguel Pro

I was searching online tonight and came across this quilt made in honor of Blessed Miguel Pro: http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/pro/pro_quilt.html

It makes use of photos transferred onto cloth and then integrated into the quilt.

Quilt Block in Honor of Our Blessed Mother

I am making this quilt for a little girl, so I will be focusing on female saints to start with. What better saint to start with than a quilt block in honor of our Blessed Mother. The lily is a symbol of Mary because of her purity and the color blue has always been associated with Mary. (Perhaps later on, I will design other blocks with other flowers that are symbols of Mary - so that one could create a Mary Garden quilt, but I need to tackle one project at a time!)

This block is 12" x 12" and is a patchwork block. One could also choose to create the whole block on a blue field and applique the flower pieces. If you were to create a whole quilt featuring this block, I would suggest varying the blue in the field - a lighter blue on some blocks in order to create greater visual interest.

To download this free pattern, including all pattern pieces: Quilt Block in Honor of Our Blessed Mother

Welcome!

This blog is a new work in progress. I've been quilting for many years, and I was recently inspired by the Women of Courage quilt project. That quilt honors several famous women (including Blessed Mother Teresa) with quilt blocks designed in their honor. Well, if Mother Teresa can have a quilt block, why not other saints?

I've been working on designing several blocks and am eager to share them. I'll start posting more as soon as I can! I hope that you are as excited about this project as I am. Please subscribe to this page so that you can get updates as soon as they become available. Thank you!