Here's a quilt I just finished. This one is for my husbands cute grandma J-- she is going to be 99 in a couple of days. Making it to that age is such an achievement...I think it deserves a quilt! Plus, I am pretty sure she is the only relative who has not yet been given a quilt by me...so it's about time!! ;) Happy Birthday Grandma J!
The inspiration for this quilt came from this fantastic quilt I saw on flickr. It was made by Rebecca of Parsley is the New Black, and when I saw it I knew it would be my next quilt. I got all excited and quickly whipped up the design in EQ. I didn't have a printer at the apartment in Arizona, so I couldn't print out templates. I ended up just drawing the block out and making my own. I had a layer cake of Central Park (by Kate Spain for Moda) that I knew would be perfect, so I had to make the blocks small enough that I could use the layer cake. The blocks ended up being just 10 inches, so the quilt was smaller than I was originally planning, but it worked out fine.
I was pleasantly surprised by how well all the points and seams matched up--I'd love to think it was my awesomeness at piecing, but I doubt it. Pretty sure it was just luck--I didn't even square anything up! It was like magic the way the blocks lined up with each other almost perfectly! This block is similar to those on the beach umbrellas quilt I made a few months back...so the centers of the blocks were a little bulky. But since I am now an old pro at bulky seams, it was not a problem! (Just ask my hammer).
I was excited to quilt this one...mostly because I already knew how I wanted to quilt it when the time came-- so there was no time wasted agonizing over how I should quilt it. I used rulers for most of it and free-handed the loops and swirls. I love how it turned out. The backing is Minky in Tiffany (from Fabric.com)....it looks super washed out in the picture, but it matched the light blue from the front beautifully.
For the binding, I used one of the blue prints from the Central Park line. I think it looks nice on the front and the back...which is great since I made the binding before I even decided to use the aqua Minky on the back. Love it when it all works out.
Yay for birthday quilts!
