This quilt is finally finished! I began this project in September 2013, when I saw a quilt on a blog. I printed out a picture for inspiration, and now cannot find the link I saved to give credit where credit is due. If I find it later, I'll link it up. I was trying to use up scraps (a never-ending project) and was taken by this design.
I figured out some dimensions. I wanted 9-inch finished blocks with the white stripping to be 2 inches finished. I looked through my scraps for pieces that were at least 7 1/2 inches long. I put on scrap in between two matching scraps, and didn't worry about getting those dimensions exact at all. The outside pieces were roughly the same.
Laying out the fabric choices |
More fabric choices |
The three piece blocks before trimming to size. |
Adding the white strips - on on the side, one on the bottom. |
Trimming the blocks, and having some coffee, too! |
I used my floor to lay out the blocks, and then sewed them together.
I was done with the top in October, and then I put it away while I worked on some other projects. I did make a backing and pinned it together, but I wasn't totally crazy about it, and got excited about some other projects, so it sat for some time all pinned and ready to go.
If I hadn't already pinned it with the backing and batting, it would still be in a pile of unfinished projects. But, it was taking up too much space, so I decided to use it as a sampler for new quilting patterns.
I decided to try pebbles for all of the white strips. It ended up being fairly dense quilting.
A section showing the pebble quilting before washing and drying. |
Here is the same pebble section after washing and drying. |
I decided to try a different quilting pattern in each colorful block, and tried to match the density of the pebble quilting. This took alot of time and alot of thread. I started with 8 bobbins of white, and easily used 18.
I have several projects underway that I was much more excited about than this one, and the time this was taking to finish was pretty aggravating. I ended up doing a block at a time, and then ended up quilting while watching the World Cup and seasons 1 and 2 of 30 Rock on Netflix.
In the end, some of the patterns I tried were awful, but there were a number that I quite like and will use again on other quilts, although perhaps not so densely.
Big fairly uniform loops. This looks happy to me, and also went quickly. |
Dense leaves. I love how this looks. It is very dense, and took quite a bit of time and effort, but I will certainly use it again on a special project. |
Flame stitches. I also liked this pattern quite a bit. It shows up much better on the red than the floral. |
Interlocking curves. I think this has some charm, and I would be a bit more careful with the size of the loops. |
Not sure what to call this, but I like it. |
I pieced the back out of two large pieces of green floral fabric. I had leftover binding from other projects, and used two different red bindings to finish it off. This was the first quilt I have sewn the binding on totally by machine. It did make it finish up quickly.
Once the quilt was finished, and held up by my trusty quilt holder, I liked it better than I had during the construction. It now reminds me of all the flags and colors from the World Cup, and so I think of it as a pagentry quilt. The finished quilt is 54 x 63 inches.
Chester giving the quilt his seal of approval! |
Now that this quilt is finally finished, I can move on to a few more projects. Among other ideas, I have a triangle quilt top ready to pin together and quilt, a civil war reproduction scrap spider web quilt being pieced and a homespun rag quilt that I am going to try using a plus pattern.
Enjoy your summer!
Take care,
Gretchen
It's a perfect quilting trifecta! A beautiful quilt, new quilting stitches (I love the pebble stitch!!) and a season of 30 Rock. Time very well spent!
ReplyDeleteGreat way to practice your quilting! Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, and cat approved! This is great scrap project, and you really practiced a lot of new things. Congrats on your finish!
ReplyDelete