This is very possibly my favourite ever finish - I know I've said that in the past, but this one is going to be hard to beat. This time last year, I attended a day long lecture/workshop with Tula Pink and it was inspiring. Having not really loved her fabrics in the past (but loved her patterns), I suddenly saw them in a new light, linked with my 2018 new year's resolution to try more fussy cutting). Fast forward 8 months and I confess that my Tula stash has expanded quite a lot. I found some UK shops with older ranges of fabric, splurged on a few destashes and found the odd piece of her fabric already in my stash. The plan was always (and remains) to make a Smitten quilt, but I'm well aware that I have plenty of fabric to make other projects as well! So when I saw the Hidden Agenda quilt pattern by Angela Pingle, this fabric sprung instantly to mind.... and we all know I love a rainbow!
And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Tina, who also has a bit of a Tula addiction... she helped with layout ideas and provided some much needed red and a couple of other treasures!
I used as many lines as I could: All Stars, Stripes and Pompoms, Zuma, Spirit Animal, True Colours, Slow and Steady, Tabby Road, Acacia, Salt Water, De La Luna, Chipper, Eden, Elizabeth, Fox Field, and Moonshine. I also tried very hard not to repeat fabrics.
I did tweak the pattern a bit: originally it includes quarter square triangles, but I replaced these with un-pieced squares so better show off more prints.
Then came the brainwave: the low volume version: and rather than declare a new start, what about using it to back the Tula version? Then Tina suggested piecing it in a mirror image so where there was, for example, a 16" block on one side, there would e a 16" block on the other.
Th Tula side went together very quickly, but the LV side took a little longer as i ran out of energy at the end of my pregnancy. I did manage to get all the LV square-in-square blocks pieced in November, and the rest cut out over Christmas, but once Joshua had arrived, this went straight to the top of the sewing list!
Basting was interesting... inevitably the back and front didn't match exacly. I added narrow borders to the LV side in Kona white so i had some wiggle-room and at various places there is up to an inch of this showing. I'm good with that!
I quilted it over a couple of nap times. I free motion quilted "organic" lines top to bottom roughly an inch apart, using Aurifil 50w in white back and front.
Finally the binding: I had bought the black and white print from De La Luna for this, but it was justt too much! Instead I used Kona Gotham Grey, which works well with both sides of the quilt and frames it nicely.
This is a Finish Along finish! You can find my original list here.
And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Tina, who also has a bit of a Tula addiction... she helped with layout ideas and provided some much needed red and a couple of other treasures!
I used as many lines as I could: All Stars, Stripes and Pompoms, Zuma, Spirit Animal, True Colours, Slow and Steady, Tabby Road, Acacia, Salt Water, De La Luna, Chipper, Eden, Elizabeth, Fox Field, and Moonshine. I also tried very hard not to repeat fabrics.
I did tweak the pattern a bit: originally it includes quarter square triangles, but I replaced these with un-pieced squares so better show off more prints.
Then came the brainwave: the low volume version: and rather than declare a new start, what about using it to back the Tula version? Then Tina suggested piecing it in a mirror image so where there was, for example, a 16" block on one side, there would e a 16" block on the other.
Th Tula side went together very quickly, but the LV side took a little longer as i ran out of energy at the end of my pregnancy. I did manage to get all the LV square-in-square blocks pieced in November, and the rest cut out over Christmas, but once Joshua had arrived, this went straight to the top of the sewing list!
Basting was interesting... inevitably the back and front didn't match exacly. I added narrow borders to the LV side in Kona white so i had some wiggle-room and at various places there is up to an inch of this showing. I'm good with that!
I quilted it over a couple of nap times. I free motion quilted "organic" lines top to bottom roughly an inch apart, using Aurifil 50w in white back and front.
Finally the binding: I had bought the black and white print from De La Luna for this, but it was justt too much! Instead I used Kona Gotham Grey, which works well with both sides of the quilt and frames it nicely.
This is a Finish Along finish! You can find my original list here.
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