2013 sampler quilt

Yes, it’s already May and I’m still talking about 2013. It could be worse, I suppose (there are several other quilt tops hanging out in the closet that date way back!). This is a quilt I started near the end of 2013 – I didn’t really have a plan in mind, other than the fact that I wanted to use the fabrics from Umbrella Prints’ Floating World line. I made a few different blocks, just playing around with the prints, and as I kept sticking them up on the design wall I found that I liked them all and couldn’t commit to any one type of block. Why stick to one type when you can use them all? So yes, a sampler!

And after that, it was just a matter of making up a variety of blocks that I used in quilts during the past year. The trickiest part of course was filling in all the white space between all the blocks. A design wall definitely comes in handy, and the fact that I needed said design wall for another quilt pushed me to get it done faster than I might have otherwise.

The backing is an older Echino polka dot print – it’s their lightweight linen blend, and extra wide, which meant no piecing.

I quilted it with straight lines both vertically and horizontally, mostly angled and in a variety of widths (you can see those quilting lines in the bright photo above).

Unfortunately, and what I didn’t notice until taking this quilt outside for photos, the backing seems to have bled into the quilting lines and has resulted in a slight greenish tinge all along those stitch lines. I think this is the first time I’ve experienced this. I need to do a bit of research to see if there’s anything I can do at this point to try to lessen the staining. If you have any suggestions, I’d certainly love to hear!