Just in the nick of time! My aim was to finish this quilt before the end of May!
It was fun creating the patchwork using hundreds of fabric pieces. Lots of them are novelty prints.
Once I’d squared up the patchwork I added two borders. I think the narrow inner border helps bring a bit of cohesion to all those little pieces and it serves the purpose of securing the many seams opening onto the outer edge of the patchwork. The second border is a fun fabric which helps draw out all the colours of the patchwork. I did consider using a striped fabric for the binding but decided the red was a better choice – there was just enough to make a length of binding 2¼” wide.
I quilted a spiral from the centre of the quilt using my favourite variegated thread, Aurifil 3817. The lines of stitching are 1½” apart.
I found a tutorial by Leah Day about starting a spiral really helpful. Key points: work in a clockwise direction so the bulk of the quilt moves to the left of of the machine as the spiral grows (much better than more and more quilt being squished into the throat of the machine if the spiral is worked in an anti-clockwise direction); start with small stitches; be prepared to lift the foot and move the quilt at least every two stitches to begin with – a bit tedious but worth it to create a smooth curve. Once the spiral is established the stitch length can be increased and the number of times the quilt needs to be repositioned quickly diminishes.
I used the EcoBlend wadding by Sew Simple that is made from recycled cotton fibres (70%) and recycled polyester fibres (30%). It quilted well, like any other blended wadding.
The finished quilt measures 43″ by 53″. It is listed in the I-Spy Collection of my Folksy Shop 🙂
Linking with Alycia for Finished or Not Friday, Michelle for the Beauties Pageant and Yvonne for the Favourite Finish Monthly Linkup.
Allison
Congrats, Allison! This is such a fun quilt! I am loving that garden behind you, too; especially the foxglove! 🙂
That is very cute! Such a fun way to make an I Spy quilt. Your quilting is great, too – I really like spiral quilting. That’s good advice for getting startedon the spiral!
I love your bright and colorful quilt. Also love how you used your scraps!
Thanks Laura! I sowed the Foxgloves years ago and now they just pop up in random places around the garden! This year there’s even one growing through the middle of a potted container plant!
What a fun way to use lots of novelty scraps. Fabulous finish.
Thank you! I hope the quilt will provide a lot of fun.
Nice scrappy finish Allison! I think your addition of the solid red border and binding really makes the rest of the quilt shine brighter.
Thank you! Yes! I’m pleased with the way those borders draw attention to the patchwork.
It’s such a nice quilt. I really appreciate that it used so many different prints – a fun way to use scraps and keep a child entertained. It’s going to a child, right? You had a “due date” for completing it… or was that a personal, arbitrary date? If so, I understand. I’ve done that myself! You’re spot-on about how to spiral quilt. I wrote a blog post with ten spiral quilting tips, and I too mentioned going clockwise. And going extremely slowly to begin. I’m so happy it worked out for you! It looks great, and is a wonderful quilting design to add to your repertoire.
Thanks Linda. The finish date was a self-imposed deadline just to try and keep me on track and not be distracted by ‘bright shiny’ new things!
I will try and sell the quilt but if no one is interested I’ll be contacting my local Project Linus rep soon to donate some quilts that are lying on my spare bed in need of homes.