Ring Around the Posy Quilt Finish

I am excited that I finally got this quilt finished and on my girls’ bed!  When I saw this spring line from Aneela Hoey earlier this year I just had to make a quilt for my daughters.  The little bunnies and girls reading are just so sweet I couldn’t resist.

When I first started this quilt, I didn’t know what to use for sashing.  I had ordered a layer cake and two mini charm packs of Posy and thought I’d make a simple squares quilt with sashing.  I wanted to use stash fabrics, so after a lot of hemming and hawing about what solid to use, I ended up going with a pretty gray floral.

The reason I went with the gray floral is because I’ve long admired Susan’s quilts on PatchworknPlay, and tried to channel my inner Suz.  If you haven’t seen her quilts before, you should check out her latest finish Ginger Kisses.  She has a gift for picking beautiful fabrics together and it’s always a visual treat to see what she’s working on.

The quilt finishes at 70 x 82, which is too big to hang on my clothesline so my husband hung it up sideways!

I had the quilt top pieced for quite a while, not sure how to actually quilt it.  I ended up going with the decorative wavy stitch on my Janome in a salmon colored thread.  I debated quilting a flower in each of the big squares, but decided against it after it sat around so long, I just wanted to get it finished!  Plus, I like how the lack of dense quilting makes this quilt oh-so-soft and comfy to wrap up in! 

I pieced the back with leftover fabrics.  I just love the way a pieced back looks.  The binding is a pretty pink and white striped—can’t go wrong with a striped binding, right?

I was also organized enough this time to add a fabric label to the back.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pinwheels

In honor of spring finally showing herself around these parts (sorry people who just got snow), I wanted to make a bright and cheerful quilt using Happy-Go-Lucky.  I started with a layer cake and subtracted out all the red fabrics.  Added a few 10” squares of Ruby to make up the difference.  And sashed it in a red Vintage Modern print.  I think it all adds up to bright and cheerful Bonnie & Camille medley!

This blue pindot and floral is my favorite block of the bunch.  Not the most flashy, but it has a classic, clean look I am drawn to.

I did learn something about making pinwheels from constructing this quilt top.  I didn’t pay attention—or rather I thought I was paying attention and I wasn’t—to the direction of the darker print in each pinwheel.  Next time I’ll get it right!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.  Have a wonderful day!

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I am linking up the first of my Just Three goals to the Flickr group “A Lovely Year of Finishes.”  I just finished sewing the binding on this morning and am picking up my oldest from school a little early to head to the park for a photo shoot this afternoon (don’t tell her teacher!).

I thought I’d show a few photos of my machine binding process. The first few I bound by machine didn’t come out perfect, but just like with fmq, my machine binding skills get better and better with practice.

I start by just stitching all the way around the perimeter of the quilt about 1/8 from the edge.  It is important to do this while your extra batting and batting are still intact!!!!!!!!  If you try to stitch after you’ve cut it off, you’ll get all kinds of puckers and pulls.  I learned this the hard way.

This little one helped with the binding process.  Just so you know, I cut my binding 2.75” wide.  I can’t seem to get things to line up properly when it’s 2.5”.

Love those Wonder Clips!  I like to just clip the binding onto the back and then mark my 1/4 inch stopping point with a straight pin.  I just sew right up to it and then backstitch.

Here’s what the back looks like after I use a zig-zag stitch to attach the binding on the front. 

The zig-zag stitch is nearly perfectly straight along the edge of the binding.  I find that as long as I don’t stop and start stitching too much or pull on the binding as I wrap it over, the stitches don’t arc.

Here’s what a corner looks like. These stitches are not coming out in the wash!

My first finish of 2013 is this quilt I designed for a Quilt Along that will start later this month.  It’s called “Easy as Pie” and the name says it all!  The pattern uses exactly every piece of a layer cake, has relatively little cutting, and comes together fast!