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Post Card Quilt [finished]

I'm hoping this is my penultimate finish to share with you this quarter (hoping for a bonus week finish): It's another quilt I started on a whim at the beginning of the summer.


Debbie from A Quilters Table had a mini quilt along with this pattern, and I loved how I could use it to showcase my text prints. Of course the real reason for making this quilt is to showcase the "front-of-the-postcard" prints... I don't own that type of fabric - I don't use it so I don't buy it. Most of my fabrics are blenders. So I turned it on it's head and used solids with a plan to add the interest with quilting.

Although  I pieced the quilt very quickly, I didn't ever get round to quilting it, because my idea was a little out of my normal comfort zone. But with the end of the quarter and a gentle shove from Debbie, I pulled it to the top of the pile.

I picked a fmq design from Lori at the Inbox Jaunt - I've been dreaming about quilting this design, but until I pulled this quilt out I had only tried it twice - once on my Nested Churn Dash quilt on a very small scale, and once on a practice sandwich.

But as so often is the case, I had to fight my machine. I'm getting really fed up of skipped stitches with free motion quilting and they've started slipping into my straight stitching too. I think we may have to go to the sewing machine doctor. Despite a few skipped stitches (and a horrific tangle on the dark purple block - still somewhat in evidence from the back) I got through the 12 flowers. I'm really pleased with how they look and I'm inspired to try other motif designs from Lori's site.


I love the look from the back of the quilt (which is just a good quality sheet).


The "back-of-the-postcard" fabrics are hard to pin down as I don't know the names of a lot of my texty fabrics but there's definitely an Alison Glass print, Mama Said Sew, Reunion and Noteworthy from Sweetwater Designs, Moda Essential Dots and Architextures Cross Hatch by Carolyn Friedlander (who has new fabric...). I added some stamps with raw edge applique which I fussy cut from a print which has absolutely no selvage. The solids are all Kona: mulberry, canary, kiwi, yellow, wisteria, pomegranate, medium pink, lake, poppy, ocean, willow and orange. I bound it in the grey cross-hatch from Architextures.


I had great fun picking out a rainbow of threads for the quilting: my machine is even grumpier when I use 40w Aurifil...

The final quilt is 24" x 24".

One last decision to make - where am I going to hang this quilt? This is another finish from my Q3 Finish Along List!

Finish Along 2014

Comments

Debbie said…
This is just one lovely finish! I'm so pleased with how you made my little pattern your own! The solids - yes! And the quilting - oh my! I aspire to such! Very nice!!
Sarah said…
The quilting looks great Jennie. It annoys me when a machine doesn't work correctly. They should just work like they're supposed too and not need adjusting!

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