The size is 62 x 84 - just barely large enough to cover the top of a queen sized mattress.
I backed it with cuddly purple flannel which it appears that I failed to document. Sigh. December is not a good month for remembering all the things.
I did a lot of walking feet to outline the blocks, but then went in with a darning food and made each block unique. I did it all in white thread. That was scary on such a dark back.
Do you remember the Aurifil 2014 BOM? I had a lot of fun with it but never got past making the top. It's been in a drawer since that December.
It had to go on my list for 2017.
I tried to step up my quilting game on this quilt. Every block is done differently, the sashing has ribbon candy in it and there is some very dense quilting in the white triangles. I like how it looks, but it sure increases the amount of time it takes to finish!
This quilt was made as part of a Craftsy.com class on modern quilting. The quilt is about 40 x 50.
The top came together quickly and was put away as I pondered quilting possibilities. When I settled on what I wanted to do, I put the quilt away for even longer because I knew I wouldn't particularly enjoy making said design. I'm not huge on marking . . .
I'm so glad I finally did it though. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Negative space is really beginning to grow on me as is quilting with a walking foot. There is a Craftsy class on dot to dot quilting that I think I should take next.
Remember the hexis I did? Click here to refresh your rememory. It was the first time I sandwiched a top and then added the details after. I knew I'd need to do it again,
Note to self: Hand positioning is critical if you don't want jogs like the oopsie above.
This might just be top five for me. I really like it. I'm a little annoyed by the shrink. Either I needed to wash the grey a second time or my 20p / 80c batting shrunk a bit.
There it is. I have two more from this Craftsy class to quilt - one is by hand and it's on a frame - it will be a while. The other is ready to go whenever I get the urge. When it's done I'm calling this a complete (because the hand quilted one will take forever) and starting a new course.
Pattern: McCalls Quick Quilts March 2008 (severely modified)
Reason: I liked the pattern and I wanted to use some blocks Grandma gave me.
Special Fabrics / Best Buys: Many of the blocks including the 4 in the centre were given to me by Grandma. My Aunt who works at a fabric store let me know when the perfect navy came in to the store.
Thoughts: Gave to Dad for his 60th birthday. I hand quilted this one. It's been a really long time since I've done that.
Reason: I drew my sister Alison's name for Christmas
Fabrics / Best Buys: I discovered I do not keep purple in my stash. I had to buy everything. Shucks.
Thoughts: This was my first improvised back. I think. I learned the concept in a free Craftsy class.
The quilting is both FMQ with a darning foot with the straight-ish lines done with a walking foot. I think I did the walking foot stuff first and then filled it in with FMQ - there is more than one FMQ design on it.
I think I like the back better. :)
Lessons learned: Angles are the difficult. This quilt was a lot more challenging than I would have thought. The pattern called for appliqued circles, but I completely wimped out and didn't add them.
Reason: I love that I can FMQ on my domestic machine and although stippling is wonderful, I wanted to learn new techniques.
Fabric / Best Buys: Almost entirely scraps. I only dipped into my stash for the yellow and blue and white.
Thoughts: This was a really interesting class and learning process. Even though I've FMQed many quilts before I could feel myself getting more comfortable as the class went on.
I used a 2" binding strip instead of 2½". It made a nice thin binding.
Lessons Learned:
1) My sewing machine does not like to FMQ with poly as the top thread (it breaks lots). Poly in the bobbin works just fine.
2) Pencil washes off of white fabric
3) I don't like premarking quilting patterns, but it really helps with accuracy so suck it up.
4) Don't undo your work just because it's not perfect. The triumph is in the learning and growing.
5) If doing different colour ways front and back try to have ONE colour in common to make choosing a binding colour easier. Just sayin.
This was one of my first quilts. I was 16. I made it with my Grandmother. All of the fabrics were hers. At bible camp that summer, everyone signed it the week I was a camper (I also worked at the camp). For a couple years after that new friends signed the back.
I only remembered I had this quilt last week when our family went back to that same camp so my girls could have some of the same experiences I did.
I used a Sharpie on it, but alas after *ahem 15 plus years* some of the names are faded almost completely away. I think the type of fabric had a great deal to do with which names faded and which didn't. There is everything from knits to cottons to denim to sweater material and everything in between.
It's one of the uglier quilts you will ever see and one of the quilts I'm most attached to.
Reason: A friend gave me corduroy blocks that were already cut and pinned into a pattern. I like treats!
Fabrics: The backing is a pink sheet that another friend gave to me.
Lessons: Corduroy frays a. lot. After I put it together I washed it and SO MANY seams frayed. I took the opportunity to use a pretty variegated thread and some fancy stitches and sewed over all the seams.
Thoughts: A very good drag around the house, picnic on the kitchen floor type of quilt!
This quilt is made up of 121 4½ inch blocks, one 1½" black border and one 5" border.
Each block is made up of (4) 4½ x 1½ strips for a finished block size of 4". This is a total of 484 strips. Strips are put together within the block from dark to light.
You will need the following quantities of blocks:
1- Black or very dark violet block
2- Dark Purple Blue
3- Purple
4- Lighter purple
5- Light purple with blue tones
6- Medium/Dark Blue
7- Blue
8- Light Blue
9- Medium greeny-blues
10- Dark Green with blue tones
11- Dark Green with yellow tones
10- Medium Green with yellow tones
9- Light yellowy greens (army tones)
8- Light yellows (perhaps with a little green)
7- Strong yellows
6- Golds
5- Orange
4- Pumpkin
3- Reds w/ orange tones
2- Deep reds
1- Burgundy
Sew your strips together dark to light, four strip to one block. I found it necessary to lay all the blocks out so I could arrange and rearrange until I was happy with how they looked.
Cut your black strips: 2 at 44½, 2 at 46½ and attach.
I used two different batiques for my outer borders to mimic the rainbow and I mitred them to continue the diagonal feel of the quilt.
Since this is the first time I've ever mitred a corner, I'm not going to try to tell you how to do that. This is the video I used to learn the technique. After that all that's left is to quilt and bind the quilt as you see fit.
Best Buys: My Aunt chose the backing fabric, a cute purple wavy stripe with a gold tinge. It was on sale at Fabricland for $5/meter! The rest of the fabric was gifted to me. Yay for shoeboxes full of scraps!
Lessons Learned / To Learn: My edges are wavy and I'm not sure why. I'd love to figure out what went wrong so I can avoid this for the future. I haven't decided if I am going to wash this quilt. I'm planning to hang it.
