Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Christmas Quilt is Complete!







Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I love the red and white combination and I was able to use up a bunch of fabric from my stash. The only think I needed to buy was the backing (Kona Cotton:Snow). Luckily I saw a post from a fellow craftster member who mentioned that Hancock Fabrics was having a huge sale on Kona Cotton (52% off to be exact). I purchased 10 yards of snow and a few yards of other colors to make use of this wonderful bargain. Unfortunately they were out of many popular colors (which I didn't find out until I placed my order and got a call from customer service ugg). What I really need is a color card so that I know what I'm buying and don't have to guess what papaya "really" looks like. The shipping took a long time too, but I guess for 52% off I should stop complaining. I only wish there were a Hancock fabrics closer than 150 miles away.

I didn't use a pattern for this quilt, but was inspired by this quilt that I saw on flickr (of course). The stars are just 5 inch squares cut into triangles and arranged accordingly.

All of the quilting was done on my juki using a walking food and straight lines. I used Signature cotton quilting thread in a variegated red/pink colorway. The stitches aren't as perfect as I'd like, but it wasn't too bad for my first try at more "complicated" quilting i.e. I didn't just use painters tape this time to make a grid. Batting of course is warm and natural, for that well worn crinkly look. Binding was a bit smaller (2.25")then I usually make since this is a smaller size quilt. I actually rather like the 2.25" and might start using it on all my quilts.

I haven't made a label yet (I know I said I'd be better about this...bad bad i know). I was so anxious to get it binded and in the washing machine I couldn't force myself to make up a label.

K-

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That looks so good! was it really difficult to do? I have actually just bought them some new bamboo fabrics, so soft and lovely and was looking for some inspiration of what to make this quilt is great inspiration.

Kari said...

Hi Lucy, I wouldn't say it was difficult to do, just a little time consuming (since I'm a beginner). I just went slow and took my time and tried to make all the lines straight. Marking the whole top before I began was also helpful. Goodluck!

Homeless said...

this looks great! do you have exact/round-about measurements for the fabric you used? i want to make this quilt for someone and i need to know how much fabric to buy. thanks!

Kari said...

It's hard to say exactly how much fabric I used because I was using scraps from my stash, but I would say I used about 8 fat eighths of different patterned cotton for the 4 stars (2 points on each star are the same). The background white fabric is probably less than a yard total. The polka dot border is 2 inches wide and I probably used about a yard and half depending on how big you make the quilt (if you go larger and don't want the border pieced you'd want to get a longer yardage). I used around two yards for the red border and 1/2 yard for the binding. These are all guesstimates, so you could probably use more or less depending on your preferences for border size and variety of patterns you use for the stars. Hope that's helpful.