The Quilt is Finished!

The Quilt is Finished!

Yay, I finished it!!  My first large quilt.  I began it in January and finished yesterday.

This is the queen-sized quilt that I have written about ‘here‘, ‘here‘, ‘here‘ and ‘here‘.  In a nutshell this quilt was my starter quilt.  I wanted to learn how to make a quilt start to finish.  This quilt was designed by Kim McLean and is called Flower Pots.  I took a class where we followed the pattern, learned to appliqué, and got to use all the things I had learned from Sue Spargo – layering, using different fabrics such as wool and velvet and then perle cotton and other threads and a multitude of stitches to enhance the shapes.  I hand stitched all the appliqué and machine stitched the panels together with the sashing and border.  I then used a wool batting and learned how to free motion quilt.  I used a red batik for the binding, cut on the bias and hand stitched the back.  Finally I made and applied a quilted label.

This first picture is of the lower center panel where I decided to try an emerging pattern of double leaf free motion quilting shape.  I used a slightly darker grey thread.

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Center Star Panel

For the upper center panel I wanted to try my hand at McTavishing, which is named after a woman who created a specific way to free motion quilt.  After a few times, I went off and did my own thing, echoing, but also playing with flame shapes.

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Top Center Panel

On this long side panel I decided that the paisley fabric was so cool I would just use it as a quilting guideline.  I really loved how this turned out, though it’s hard to really see, I did add a close up below.

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Side Panel

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Detail of the free motion quilting on the side panel

This is the bottom panel and I included pebbles, echoing and swirls, which I did again on the top panel.

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Bottom Panel

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More of the center panel

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Merlin naps as I work

Merlin was constantly coming over to nap or pretend to nap while secretly inspecting my work.  He loved snuggling up amongst the folds as I worked, making for some interesting adjustments on my part as I hated to disturb him!

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The border

The entire border I did in a pebble stitch, which I love.  It’s so reminiscent of shapes I used for my jewelry collection, The Lotus Collection.  And now that I think of it, the swirls in the bottom and top panels remind me of my Samadhi Collection.

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Hand Sewing the binding

Finally I had to learn how to make and add a binding.  After a number of different ideas regarding what fabric to use, I decided, with my FH’s (fabulous husband’s) help, to go with a red batik.  Batik tends to be pretty densely woven, and as the binding can get more wear and tear than the rest of the quilt, I thought it was a good choice, plus, I love the red.  I cut it on the bias, mitered the corners, and hand stitched the back.

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For my beautiful mom ~ Merry Christmas

And then I had to learn how to make a label for my quilt.  There are wonderful ideas on Pinterest.  Are you on Pinterest?  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pinterest.  I made a label using word documents and then used a freezer paper and cut a piece of fabric that I adhered the freezer paper to and copied the printed label onto the fabric, lightening the tone so it was just readable, but wouldn’t show too much.  I then removed the freezer paper, sandwiched the printed material with a cotton batting and muslin and then used red wool thread and stitched the text.  I added the little wool red heart and cut out another smaller heart in the same fabric as the binding because I figured I can’t add enough hearts to a quilt made specifically for my mom.

So Mom, if you’re reading this, the cats out of the bag.  Merry Christmas!!  This quilt was made for you. I thought of you the entire time I was making it.  I hope it will keep you wonderfully warm during those cold winter months and I’m told wool batting breathes and should be perfect for the summer months as well.  I love you.

What’s next?  A twin-sized quilt that I will design, stitch and quilt!!  I’ve got my sketch book and am playing with some ideas…  I’ll keep you posted!  Heh-heh, a little pun to end this post.

 

The Quilt is Finished!

The Finished Quilted Pillow

In my last post I was busy learning how to free motion quilt and began practicing on a sandwich made for just this purpose, practice.  I wrote about all of this ‘here‘ so I won’t go into all of that again.

But now you have to see the finished product!

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The Quilted Pillow!

And it’s only fair to show you the back, because I agonized over the material.  I asked for lots of people’s opinions and then the quilter, teacher, fabric enthusiast, Diane Rode Schneck, whom many of you in the quilting world may know, pulled out this fabric and said, “I like this one.”  And that was it.  She was right.  It was perfect!

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The back

This pillow is BIG, measuring 30″ square and it will go with the quilt top I have not yet begun quilting as my machine is STILL not repaired.  In the meantime I have a work space to reorganize.

Happy creating!

The Quilt is Finished!

Quilts!

Remember those “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” books?

This is my version of that…

If you show a girl a quilt, she’s going to wonder how it’s made.  When she wonders how it’s made, she’s going to take a Block of the Month class to see how  it’s done.  Once she’s signed up for the class, she’s going to begin making a quilt herself.

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Center Block from the Flower Pots Quilt Designed By Kim McLean

When she starts to make a quilt herself, she’s going to think about how she can make it uniquely hers.

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Detail of one of the Center Blocks

When she begins to make it uniquely hers, she’s going to incorporate all the stitches she learned in the Craftsy class given by Sue Spargo that she wrote about a few weeks ago on the post, Change.

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Detail from Flower Pots side panel

Once she begins adding all those stitches she learned…

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Almost finished Flower Pots Quilt!

she’s going to want to start designing her own blocks…

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Rhino Block designed and stitched by Ariane Zurcher

…which will lead her to a two-week Artist’s workshop retreat.

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The artist’s retreat will be life transforming and will give her all kinds of ideas for new pieces that she wants to design and create…

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Manhole Cover at Onondaga Community College

While she marvels at all the things she’s seeing and learning she will be reminded of other things she’s already working on…

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Detail from Flower Pot Quilt Border

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One of those things will be manhole covers!  Who doesn’t love manhole covers and if you love manhole covers, wouldn’t a quilt inspired by them be even more fabulous?!

So it’s probably best to give a girl her first quilt while she’s still very young so she has plenty of time to learn and do all of this!

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Merlin overseeing the work.

Coming next week: pots!   Not flower pots as in the quilt, but real pots, thrown pots, hand painted pots… gotta love pots!