I LOVE this quilt.
But I didn't always. Regular readers will have heard the story before, but I'm going to tell it again anyway! This quilt first appeared in an issue of Quilt Mania back in spring 2015(!), and a friend managed to snag me a copy. There was a little bit of a quilt along going on Instagram and, well, you know me! I decided to replicate the original feeling of the quilt - totally scrappy. This was a new look for me: all the fabric all over the place!
First up was the sky. I forget just how many 1.5" squares I needed to cut, but I multi-tasked: I cut it out the same week as I cut the background for my pixelated heart quilt. So whilst it took a long time - a ridiculously long time - at least I was killing two birds with one stone. And despite the size of the pieces, the sky area came together quite easily.
I struggled more with the "city" - trying to get a good balance of colour. But I really enjoyed the freedom to use any fabric and the variety of piecing. The section surrounded by green was a tough section: whereas the rest of the quilt was regular piecing, the odd bit of foundation piecing and a few appliqued petals, this section was a whole other story. New York beauty arcs, appliqued arcs, tiny hexies. I used all the resources of the online community to do them in the easiest way, but there was still a lot of thinking required to get them sussed. And it turned into my favourite section.
I fell behind the quilt along, and put it away for a while. Then there was a second quilt along, and that was the push I needed to get it pieced. As I posted more and more pictures on Instagram I got loads of likes and positive messages, but once I'd finished the piecing, I just really didn't like it. I even contemplated giving it away to another quilter who would love it. But I know that quilting can change a project. Very early on in the process of making the quilt, I knew I wanted to hand quilt it. And every stitch I added, I loved the quilt a little bit more.
The texture the hand quilting has given the sky is absolutely my favourite part of this quilt. I just love it! Love it!
The quilting of the city is much more varied: sometimes I've echoed seam lines, sometimes I've gone right across a piece; most of the quilting is in a thread that matches the fabric, sometimes a pop of colour was what it needed (mostly where I didn't have a matching thread!). But as with all my projects, this was put back on the shelf at the end of last year as Christmas stitching and other projects took over.
I joined the APQ resolution project at the start of this year and the first project from my list was this one. I spent a good deal of time on it during January and made a big leap forward when I decided to baste it before I finished the quilting. I got some questions on the Facebook group as to why: I would only ever do it on something that is already partly quilted, and I would only ever do it on projects I was hand quilting: the quilt gets a lot of handling and by finishing the edges it's more protected from that handling. I'm not sure whether I would have done it with a pale binding, but the black Architextures cross hatch I chose wasn't going to show any grubby marks! I've been plodding away at the quilting ever since.
This is also a Finish Along finish. You can find my original list here.
But I didn't always. Regular readers will have heard the story before, but I'm going to tell it again anyway! This quilt first appeared in an issue of Quilt Mania back in spring 2015(!), and a friend managed to snag me a copy. There was a little bit of a quilt along going on Instagram and, well, you know me! I decided to replicate the original feeling of the quilt - totally scrappy. This was a new look for me: all the fabric all over the place!
First up was the sky. I forget just how many 1.5" squares I needed to cut, but I multi-tasked: I cut it out the same week as I cut the background for my pixelated heart quilt. So whilst it took a long time - a ridiculously long time - at least I was killing two birds with one stone. And despite the size of the pieces, the sky area came together quite easily.
I struggled more with the "city" - trying to get a good balance of colour. But I really enjoyed the freedom to use any fabric and the variety of piecing. The section surrounded by green was a tough section: whereas the rest of the quilt was regular piecing, the odd bit of foundation piecing and a few appliqued petals, this section was a whole other story. New York beauty arcs, appliqued arcs, tiny hexies. I used all the resources of the online community to do them in the easiest way, but there was still a lot of thinking required to get them sussed. And it turned into my favourite section.
I fell behind the quilt along, and put it away for a while. Then there was a second quilt along, and that was the push I needed to get it pieced. As I posted more and more pictures on Instagram I got loads of likes and positive messages, but once I'd finished the piecing, I just really didn't like it. I even contemplated giving it away to another quilter who would love it. But I know that quilting can change a project. Very early on in the process of making the quilt, I knew I wanted to hand quilt it. And every stitch I added, I loved the quilt a little bit more.
The texture the hand quilting has given the sky is absolutely my favourite part of this quilt. I just love it! Love it!
The quilting of the city is much more varied: sometimes I've echoed seam lines, sometimes I've gone right across a piece; most of the quilting is in a thread that matches the fabric, sometimes a pop of colour was what it needed (mostly where I didn't have a matching thread!). But as with all my projects, this was put back on the shelf at the end of last year as Christmas stitching and other projects took over.
I joined the APQ resolution project at the start of this year and the first project from my list was this one. I spent a good deal of time on it during January and made a big leap forward when I decided to baste it before I finished the quilting. I got some questions on the Facebook group as to why: I would only ever do it on something that is already partly quilted, and I would only ever do it on projects I was hand quilting: the quilt gets a lot of handling and by finishing the edges it's more protected from that handling. I'm not sure whether I would have done it with a pale binding, but the black Architextures cross hatch I chose wasn't going to show any grubby marks! I've been plodding away at the quilting ever since.
This is also a Finish Along finish. You can find my original list here.
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