This is one of my longest running WIPs - I started it in Summer 2010. Unfortunately I did it in a class very early in my quilting career and we weren't given the instructions on how to put it together - it was my first attempt at quilt as you go and I didn't have a clue.
Roll forward to the beginning of this year and I found the tutorial by Leah Day for joining QAYG blocks with narrow sashing - a little light bulb popped on and since then I have moved this project from barely-touched-since-leaving-the-class, to finished quilt which I love.
The fabrics are a bit of a mixture but most of the heart/flower fabrics are from a Benartex range called Sweethearts. The layers were all joined together with some really poor (hindsight is a wonderful thing) hand quilting - I did it like I did embroidery, so the front is fine but the back not so great.
Speaking of the back... the plan was a chequerboard effect. Oh well!
This is a wall hanging - there is too much hand sewing for it to be a snuggly quilt, so I've popped a couple of hanging triangles on the back.
And this quilt even has a quilt label - mostly because there was one little bit where the sashing didn't catch the edge of the fabric - 3 years of floating around cupboard had led to quite a lot of fraying. The label nicely hides this little miss.
And what am I going to do with this quilt now - I'm going to hang it in the nursery of course, because Thursday's scan showed that we are (very likely) expecting a little girl!
This is one of my favourite ever finishes: It represents so much of my quilt journey and the learning curve I've been on for the last 3 years. I love the fabrics and it is getting finished at the perfect time in my life.
Just a final few notes (mostly for my benefit for the next time I use this technique for sashing) of what I learnt: I would cut the sashing strip for the back a quarter inch wider than Leah suggests - although the size she gives is the accurate size needed, it does depend on a very accurate quarter inch seam, and when I'm stitching through so many layers, I struggle to get it perfect. To keep things even it works better with a walking foot (which I find makes the quarter inch seam even harder to maintain). Turning down the speed of the machine was a big help too. I would also recommend reverse stitching at each end of each length of sashing - this is a weak spot when flipping it over and hand stitching. Also, removing the pins was important - I lost two machine needles in the space of ten minutes!
This was one of my Finish Along Goals this quarter, so I'm linking up with Leanne!
Roll forward to the beginning of this year and I found the tutorial by Leah Day for joining QAYG blocks with narrow sashing - a little light bulb popped on and since then I have moved this project from barely-touched-since-leaving-the-class, to finished quilt which I love.
The fabrics are a bit of a mixture but most of the heart/flower fabrics are from a Benartex range called Sweethearts. The layers were all joined together with some really poor (hindsight is a wonderful thing) hand quilting - I did it like I did embroidery, so the front is fine but the back not so great.
Speaking of the back... the plan was a chequerboard effect. Oh well!
This is a wall hanging - there is too much hand sewing for it to be a snuggly quilt, so I've popped a couple of hanging triangles on the back.
And this quilt even has a quilt label - mostly because there was one little bit where the sashing didn't catch the edge of the fabric - 3 years of floating around cupboard had led to quite a lot of fraying. The label nicely hides this little miss.
And what am I going to do with this quilt now - I'm going to hang it in the nursery of course, because Thursday's scan showed that we are (very likely) expecting a little girl!
This is one of my favourite ever finishes: It represents so much of my quilt journey and the learning curve I've been on for the last 3 years. I love the fabrics and it is getting finished at the perfect time in my life.
Just a final few notes (mostly for my benefit for the next time I use this technique for sashing) of what I learnt: I would cut the sashing strip for the back a quarter inch wider than Leah suggests - although the size she gives is the accurate size needed, it does depend on a very accurate quarter inch seam, and when I'm stitching through so many layers, I struggle to get it perfect. To keep things even it works better with a walking foot (which I find makes the quarter inch seam even harder to maintain). Turning down the speed of the machine was a big help too. I would also recommend reverse stitching at each end of each length of sashing - this is a weak spot when flipping it over and hand stitching. Also, removing the pins was important - I lost two machine needles in the space of ten minutes!
This was one of my Finish Along Goals this quarter, so I'm linking up with Leanne!
Comments