The Point Quilt: Hudson's Bay Blanket DIY

For the better part of the last year, I've been working on my own king-sized (105"sq) version of the famous Canadian Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) Point Blanket.

The HBC Point Blanket is traditionally a 100% wool blanket which was traded by the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1700 and 1800s to First Nations peoples in exchange for goods (like beaver pelts)¹.

Close up of the wool HBC Point Blanket Image courtesy of Wikipedia

In Canada, the blankets are available exclusively at The Bay (HBC's company) and here in the US at The Bay's sister company, Lord and Taylor. The wool blankets are gorgeous and, justifiably, expensive. You can find them in the aforementioned stores and on Amazon.com {here} (aff link).

Over the years, the HBC Point has been available in a wide range of colors, with the white with red, green, yellow and blue stripes the most popular. Image courtesy of HBCHeritage.ca

I have always wanted one but was worried about their care (being wool), how well they'd hold up under the wear and tear of a chocolate lab, and about how itchy one would be to sleep under. So, I thought I'd make my own.

The Back:

The iconic blankets have come in an array of colors and limited edition releases over the years - I harnessed this idea when creating the single-color blue backing with varying shade-stripes in Kaufman yarn dyed Essex Linen blues (aff link to Amazon.com) -

The Front:

I ended up 'pixelating' the iconic green, red, yellow and blue stripes on the front for a more scrappy look and to add a bit of visual interest but used fabrics which read like solids - brushstrokes, peppered cottons, and true solids, all in the same shade families. Each stripe has 84 3" squares, offset, split in 2 rows.


I used Bella Solids "Ivory" for the front background and Bella Solids "Nautical" for the backing background (aff link to Amazon.com for your pajammy-shopping pleasure!).

The entire quilt was pieced with Aurifil 50wt in the following colors - (aff links to Amazon.com included below for your reference)

Aurifil #2000
Aurifil #2720
Aurifil #1248
Aurifil #2710
Aurifil #6720
Aurifil #2250
Aurifil #2890
Aurifil #1135

...and was quilted with an all-over computerized pattern by the lovely and wonderful Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting.

This Canadian expat is so happy to have this little piece of 'home' on my bed!

I hope you've enjoyed my post about my now very-favoritest-quilt-I've-ever-made. If you are inspired by this creation and decide to make one of your own, make sure to message me about it! Thanks for reading and Happy Monday to you all!

¹ Hudson's Bay Point Blanket, extracted April 13, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_point_blanket

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