Sunday, January 29, 2012

First Quilt Finish of 2012 - at last!!

At last, finally, I have a quilt finish this year. It feels like a long time. It has been a long time! I finished up the last quilt of 2011 on Christmas week - more than 5 weeks, eek!

Fresh Pinwheels quilt finished side view


But I think it was worth the wait and I hope you do too :-)

This is a quilt for a baby boy born last week. I was asked to make it in yellow, white and blue, and while this combo of colours is quite traditional, I really loved working with it (much more than I anticipated.) The lemons and yellows are so cheerful and happy and absolutely lovely to have peeping out at me every time I looked at my sewing stack in the kitchen on these gloomy days. And the blues, well, what can I say, you know I love my aquas. Interestingly when I went to my stash for blues, there are very few true blues there, most of them are in the aqua/turquoise/teal family, but I think that is ok, and it keeps this quilt very fresh.

Fresh Pinwheels rolled up

The pinwheel blocks are approx 7.5" finished size. I am really happy with the point matching on this one. When making my HSTs I took my time, gave myself an extra 1/8" while cutting and piecing so that I could trim them to a perfect size, and you can see it in the blocks. It was so much easier to piece the top than other HST quilts I have done because it was so much more accurate. HSTs are a LOT of work, but I always think they are worth it in the end. The quilt measures 39" x 47" finished.



I love the movement in the quilt and pieced my blocks so as to give a slight optical illusion to the pinwheels spinning.

Fresh Pinwheels quilt hanging.jpg


I also, for the first time on a full size quilt, handfinished the binding. I wasn't convinced I was going to love it but I got friendly with my thimble, stitched away in front of the tv a couple of nights, and I *might* be a convert. I went with a slightly wider binding than I normally do and I must admit I like it more than I thought I would.

Fresh Pinwheels binding


The backing is a cream fabric with a tiny blue and yellow floral print and works great with the front.

Backing


I quilted this one with a meandering stipple and a few loops. It was so much fun to quilt because the size is so manageable, compared to the big quilts I did at the back end of last year. I used Aurifil white thread on the front and cream on the back. Now that its been washed and dried, the quilting has sunk into it nicely and its beautifully crinkly!

Fresh Pinwheels folded

 This one is wrapped and ready to post off in the morning and I hope baby will love it!

Fresh Pinwheels quilt finished.jpg

I'm linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday, Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday with this one!

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42 comments:

Pieces to Love said...

That is a lovely quilt. You did a great job!

Shanea said...

Very, very sweet quilt. I am sure it will be well loved.

Susan said...

Blue and Yellow is a great colour combo! And all the time you have taken with points is well worth it! Lovely!

Heather D. said...

It's just lovely. Pinwheels make a perfect baby quilt, along with that colour combo.

Katie said...

Blue and yellow are wonderful together. I'm sure it will be well loved!

Canadian Abroad said...

The quilt is so sweet and will be treasured.

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

love a pinwheel quilt. And your FM quilting is beautiful

Cindy said...

Yippee! It's lovely! Well done, Sarah!

Amanda said...

The quilt is gorgeous, you did a fantastic job! I'm sure baby will love it.

Becky (My Fabric Obsession) said...

I love it, it's beautiful. i really love the colors and how they already have a nice soft feel. Your quilting is wonderful too. Well done!

Svetlana said...

Oh, beautiful quilt. Looks so wonderful, fresh, and pretty.

felicity said...

Beautiful! Blue and yellow are such a classic combination but your fresh choice of colours really makes it modern. Lovely!

Unknown said...

So cute! Perfect for a wee one :-)

Fiona @ Poppy Makes said...

It's lovely, really fresh and pretty!

Annabella said...

5 weeks seems a short time to me!! Beautiful quilt Sarah - good to see you are feeling better. Stay well.

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

I love it - all of it xxx

Katy Cameron said...

Yay for a finish, and I see what you mean about the optical illusion, how clever!

Leanne said...

It is beautiful, every bit of it! Congratulations on the finish.

Kirsten said...

Beautiful quilt Sarah - love the colour combo and your pinwheels are perfect!

Stephanie said...

Absolutely lovely. I love the size of triangles you used in relation to the size of the quilt. I have never done a quilt in this design, but I think I will try it on one of my next few quilts:)

Barbara said...

I love your choice of binding. I like the look of finishing the binding by hand. After making a beautiful quilt it just adds to the quality of the quilt. It is just wonderful.

Barbara said...

I love your choice of binding. I like the look of finishing the binding by hand. After making a beautiful quilt it just adds to the quality of the quilt. It is just wonderful.

needle and nest said...

I love that you hand stitched the binding. I really enjoy that part of the quilting process. And I'm with you on the wider binding- that's how I prefer to make mine. :)

Lynne said...

Lovely!

The Sunflower Patch said...

Such an adorable little boy quilt,it is sure to be loved. Your HST's are perfect!

Live a Colorful Life said...

What a fresh and lovely quilt. I'm sure it will be well loved!

sewhappiness said...

Ohh Sarah!! You did a wonderful job on this one! It's so pretty!! I'm sure that it'll be loved!!
Love the fact that you chose to hand-bind this cutie! I've never tried and I'm still considering on this..
Have a great week Sarah:D What a way to start 2012!!!
xoxo
eleni

Deb said...

Oh my, that is beautiful.

Judith, Belfast said...

Beautiful! A lovely gift S! Jxo

my4lilgirls said...

Sarah its absolutely beautiful, love your quilts
Karen xxxx

Irina said...

beautiful!!!

Kim said...

I've just started quilting and am learning so much from blogs. What does HST stand for? With this quilt did you make the blocks larger and then cut them down? SOrry for the questions but I'm picking up tips where I can, this little part of Yorkshire seems to be quilter -free unfortunately:(

Lisnaweary Quilts said...

It's gorgeous! The colours are lovely!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful....well worth the wait. I really like the quilting you did on this one. Very, very nice!

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Congrats! It is a fabulous finish!

Jessica Kelly said...

Love this Sarah! So sweet and perfect for a little baby boy, love the hearts in your binding!

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

Congratulations on a lovely finish!

Lisa C said...

I'm glad you're happy with the quilt. It's very pretty. I tried machine binding for the first time a few weeks ago and promptly went back to hand-stitching the back. Maybe I'll try the machine again but for now I'm a hand-binding (on the back) girl!

lindsey said...

This is beautiful, I love it all. The colours are so pretty and the binding lovely. I have just finished hand stitching the back edge of a quilt binding...it is quite relaxing, like hand quilting. I am sure the little baby boy will look very snuggly all wrapped up in this :)

Trudi said...

Beautiful!

Brandie said...

Lovely

Jodi B. said...

Love your pinwheel quilt. Thanks for the tip to be a tad generous with the block size to allow some trimming. Also, the binding fabric is perfect.