2013 sampler quilt

samplerquilt

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!

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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.

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

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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).

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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!

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jubilee

diamondjubilee

Finished! And it will be quite perfect for Spring, should it ever arrive! I’ve been waiting all week to get photos of 2 newly finished quilts, but it’s been all rain, rain, rain around here (good for the grass – look how green it is now! – but not so great for photos). Yesterday, even though they predicted more rain, we actually got a few sunny breaks, so I finally had a chance to quickly snap a few photos of this Liberty quilt.

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I’m really happy with how it turned out, though boy oh boy, can I just tell you how challenging this one was to quilt? I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it. It’s partly problems with my trusty sewing machine (it’s definitely time to look into buying a replacement – I’ve been putting it off, but now that it’s making sewing a challenge, I think it’s time), and partly a problem with basting. I usually am a spray baster (tutorial here), though recently I’ve been using the 505 and then also pinning it (somehow the spray doesn’t seem to stick as well as it used to… ). The 505 doesn’t  stick to the smooth silky surface of the Liberty, or to the backing I used, so I had to just use pins. I don’t do it often enough, so I guess I didn’t get it taut enough. In any case, the straight lines I decided to use took an absolute eternity to quilt (and nearly caused me to call it a loss!). I’d quilt a line or two, then would have to stop to repin the remaining section.

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I’m glad I kept at it though, because a trip through the wash seems to have crinkled it up just enough to make me forget about all the challenges.

Anyway, enough about the problems. How about more about the quilt? As mentioned, the top is made up of all Liberty of London prints – some from my stash combined with a great bundle from Westwood Acres (ps. if you missed the first round of their Liberty monthly club, you have another chance – their second round is starting up in July and you can sign up here. As with other Liberty quilts I’ve made, I chose Quilters Dream request for batting, which is their lowest loft. It makes for a really wonderfully light and drapey quilt, especially paired with the Liberty.

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The backing is a lovely solid gray from Robert Kaufman’s Cambridge lawn collection. I usually go for voile for the back of a Liberty quilt, but I think I might like this lawn a bit better since it seems to have less of a sheen to it. I pieced in a little section of Liberty snippets to break up all that gray. The binding is a lilac colored voile – I tested all the solid voile colors I had and this was the best. I wasn’t initially sold on it, but now I really like it.

The quilt measures about 50″ x 60″, which is a great size for covering up on the couch. Once it gets a bit warmer, I’ll be putting this one to use!

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my trimmings…

Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to be a judge for the Umbrella Prints Trimmings competition – this year I thought it would be fun to try my hand at making up a little something out of one of their trimmings packets. It seems like a fun challenge to see what you can make out of a certain number of little pieces.

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I picked their warm bundle – Earth – and here’s what I received. Pretty, right?

This weekend I pulled out some coordinating solids – seems I reach for these quite often! I even used similar colors in a couple mini quilts using a few Umbrella Prints snippets.

solids
(please excuse the poor iphone photo!)

I don’t have a definite plan in mind yet, but hopefully something fun will come to me!

[Today’s post was actually supposed to be about my newly finished 2013 sampler quilt, which actually features the Floating World prints from Umbrella Prints. However the rainy weekend and a toddler who seemed insistent on throwing a tantrum about everything (will someone please tell me that the tantrums and moodiness will end sometime soon? please?) foiled my plans to get photos. Hopefully tomorrow. It seems like it’s been a while since there’s been a finished quilt on this here blog!]

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