This week I finished this twin-sized quilt in colors I love. It began with the scraps from one of the Construction Baby Quilts, supplemented with squares from my 3 1/2″ bin. Then I added a bit from yardage to fill it out and have enough for the diagonal effect. I’m very happy with the result.
To my surprise, when I searched for backing fabric, I found a print on gray from the same line as the original fabric (“Under Construction” by Kanvas Color), and on sale!
The quilting is in the ditch between every square, and then some diagonals across the quilt. Yes, there is a bit of Mirror Ball Dot!
Also, I found the perfect fabric for binding in my stash, orange with yellow stripes. This reminds me that I’ve wanted to mention when I solve my quilt design problems: as I go to sleep at night! In this case, I planned to bind the quilt in a solid orange, but it was getting dark in my studio, so I thought I would wait for morning to choose the right fabric. Then, as I was falling asleep, I remembered the perfect fabric for the binding. Extraordinarily bright, I had passed it up many times on other projects. Now, was it in the Orange drawer or the Stripes drawer? The Orange, I thought. And, in the morning, there it was! Often when I find myself at a crossroads on a quilt (or a brick wall), I consciously think about it as I fall asleep. More often than not, answers become clear to me, and they are usually the ones that make it into the quilts. When do you do your best design work?
Here’s my finish from last week. The red, white, and black construction baby quilt caught the attention of a customer on Etsy, who special ordered one in solid navy. It did turn out very nautical, didn’t it? I quilted it all over with navy Bottom Line. That meant that the thin dark thread also went over areas of red, white, and light blue. I thought for a while about the thread color. Other than possibly using smoke Monopoly, I couldn’t come up with anything I liked better. I’m very happy with the way it came out, so I guess navy was fine.
With all that navy, I had to be very diligent with a lint roller and careful to keep it away from everything until I could get it safely packaged to mail. Whew!
See more finishes at Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.
April 11, 2014 at 2:14 PM
Love the first quilt (well, I love both, but the top one really struck me). Yes, I do design work as I fall asleep, mostly to help me fall asleep and to quiet the monkeys in my mind, but also because I get some good ideas. Nice work. Thanks for sharing.
April 12, 2014 at 4:02 AM
Two lovely quilts ! Great colour choices. I also plan quilts as I go to sleep, although I sometimes think I’ve got a perfect solution – yet in the morning I can remember the satisfaction… But not the solution !!!!!
April 12, 2014 at 4:04 AM
What a super cute quilt! That backing fabric was just meant to be!!!
April 12, 2014 at 4:30 AM
I love the colour scheme and it must have been serendipity to find such a super backing fabric!
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April 13, 2014 at 9:06 PM
It’s a gorgeous quilt! Yellow and gray can never go wrong.
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