Blogger's Quilt Festival: Fall 2014

Oct 24

Oct 24 Blogger's Quilt Festival: Fall 2014

Blogger Quilt Festival, Finished Project, Small Projects, Wallhanging

I’ve been dying to share this project and I’m excited to do it during the Blogger’s Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy’s Creative Side.

This project started from a quilt block app on my phone. I was playing around on the free app one day (Pattern Blocks Inner peace through geometry) (Yes, it says that!) and I came up with this block.

It’s an odd layout, but there was something about it that I liked. I didn’t do anything with it for quite some time, but I eventually recreated it on my computer and toyed with different ideas. Eventually, I decided on a two-by-two layout. I was never interested in having a quilted wall-hanging before. I guess they always felt too “country” to me (not bad, just not my style). But, I needed something to hang over my keyboard, so I grabbed my cut up Kona Cotton card and pulled colors from my drapes.

I took this project with me on vacation. Oh those half-square triangles and two-and-a-half inch squares! There’s are reason why I’ve been avoiding them.

When it came time to quilt the top, this project had a mind of its own. I thought it’d be cool to piece my back, but when I went to quilt it, I completely changed my plan. The previous idea of concentric squares wasn’t going to cut it. I doodled out the designs and didn’t look back…free motion here I come!

I used 11 different colors of thread. I really like tone on tone quilting, as it becomes more about the texture and less about the stitches. I calculated about 20 hours worth of quilting! The finished quilt is 26" x 26".

When you quilt so densely and with multiple colors, the back becomes less than attractive. I had to cover it up, but I wasn't exactly sure how to go about it. A guild friend turned me on to art quilt binding or pillowcase binding. I simply cut a piece of fabric the same size as my trimmed quilt. Stitched around the entire thing leaving an opening on one end to turn it. Press it VERY well and it's sleek and clean!

It’s fun to see a design come to life. I finally finished it in a 9 hour frenzied quilt-a-thon and my back hurt for a week. If I were to do it again, I would probably a few things differently, but I really couldn’t be too much happier with the end result.