Wednesday, March 14, 2012

First Finish of 2012 -- A Process Post

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I realize it is MARCH and I should have already had a finished quilt. But hey, I'm a busy gal!

I'm happy to show off my first finish of the year, though. This quilt is for the soon-to-arrive grandchild of a dear friend. When I asked my friend baby colors, she said "soft pinks and greens". Those aren't colors I typically buy and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am on a fabric buying diet...trying not to buy any quilting fabric unless it is for backing. I am proud to say that everything in this quilt--except the binding--was from my stash. Hooray!

The patchwork blocks are made from two Lilly and Will Moda charm packs that I bought ages ago. I pulled out only the pinks and greens from each stack and "fiddled" with them until I came up with the idea to do four patch blocks and sash them w/a wide border. Please ignore my hideous design wall/cat scratcher.


After digging through my stash, I found an off white print that actually had enough yardage for the sashing AND the backing. Woo Hoo! 

My last attempt at free motion quilting was a pain in the neck, so I opted to do a straight line design following the patchwork blocks. I get a little impatient while quilting and that often results in a few wonky lines and puckers(although I'm not certain puckers come from trying to hurry). This quilt is no exception. but I'm hoping the recipents won't find the mistakes to be  as glaring as I do. If I do say so myself, I did manage to snap an awful purty picture of the quilting in process! 

I went against my new no-fabric-unless-it's-for-backing rule and bought something for  binding. I had nothing in my stash that would work. NOTHING. OK, I did have enough of the off white, but I wanted the binding to stand out a bit. I'm very pleased with how this soft taupey print worked with the other colors. I refuse to speak of the hell that is machine applied binding, but the binding was applied by machine.

It is a noticeable frame for the quilt, but the pink and green patchwork blocks remain the stars of the show. 

So the lighting is horrid in this last shot, but I couldn't wait to photograph it in natural light! Here' the finished product...I'm pretty happy with it!


I'm immediately starting on another baby quilt. I want to take a bit more time with it. I have an idea (thank's to the babe's grandma) and I'm hoping that it will be a hip, funky quilt for a very special little person! Hopefully I'll have pics to post very soon!

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