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Arabella Hexagon Quilt [finished]

Pieced, basted, quilted, and bound - this quilt is finished. And I am very pleased with the finished result.

Mia helped with the photoshoot

Last year friends of ours had a baby girl called Arabella. I had fully intended to make them a baby quilt, but she was born just after I fell pregnant and I couldn't face sewing for over a month, so the quilt was never made. We are going to a mutual friend's wedding tomorrow so it's about time Arabella got her quilt.

This started as a sketch and I worked it out with a bit of trial and error and a 60 degree ruler. The fabrics are a mix from my stash plus a light green mottled fabric I bought specifically, but which didn't have a name on the selvage: Kona Solids, Pearl Bracelets, Art Gallery and Moda.

The was the quilt I needed to practice my spiral quilting for. I ironed out some of the problems with my practice quilt, and half way through I un-basted the remaining quilt and re-basted it as I've found the spiral quilting distorts the fabric slightly . However, there are still numerous pleats and puckers on the back. Luckily I chose a nice busy backing fabric (Mimi by Chez Moi for Moda) which hides it.

My Quilt-Holder-Upper may have been drunk...
I love the texture from this type of quilting, but I still have some way to go to perfect it. I did three spirals, two of which overlap, but I ended up with a very baggy bit of the quilt top in the triangle between the two - I attacked it by pinning heavily then used my walking foot to sew 1/8" from the edge of the quilt to even out the bagginess and it worked - no puckers. I struggled to know how to finish the centre of the spiral - I settled on a free motion quilted heart - you wouldn't believed the trouble my machine gave me over those three hearts - thorough clean, new needle, rethreaded, rethreaded again...and again... eventually I won.

The binding is a Moda Marble in sage green. All of these photos are taken before washing - it's currently in the tumble drier and nearly ready to be gifted tomorrow - though I may try and take some better photos before I gift it...


Everyone wanted to get in on the photo shoot!

Doesn't Mia look tiny

I have another one of these quilts in the pipe line and the plan is to make it into a pattern - if anyone would like to test the pattern for me, just drop me a note.

This is my first finish for the Quarter 2 Finish Along and the next few finishes should be soon, as I just need to attach some binding. You can find my original finish along list here.
Finish Along 2014
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Comments

Jessica said…
This is stunning!! You did a beautiful job with the quilting, too!
9 May 2014 at 22:54
Marly said…
Beautiful design, and you've done a good job on the quilting. You were brave doing such a demanding quilting design; thanks for sharing your experience.
10 May 2014 at 04:06
Diane-crewe said…
beautiful model for a beautiful quilt xx .. you turn your back and the whole family want to get in on the act xx lol x
10 May 2014 at 09:46
Ada Plouvier-Kopitopoulou said…
The quilt and Mia look lovely. She look indeed very tiny in this picture. Your friend will be over the moon!
11 May 2014 at 08:19
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