Well it seems that I blogged in February, blinked and it's already June. Yikes!
Little bits and pieces of sewing have been happening around here lately, but nowhere near to the extent that I used to be able to finish projects. Life just gets busy. And it seems I sew more and am inspired more, when you actually sit down to sew. Also when the sewing room is tidy and organised - which it hasn't been for quite a while. Anways, enough excuses. I thought I'd pop in here today to share a quilt which I finished last week.
The pattern is called Diamond Exchange by Jen Kingwell. I used the template set to create my quilt, but it's also available in Jen's book called Quilt Recipes. You can find it here on amazon.
I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful bundle of fabric from Connecting Threads along with some coordinating thread. Have you ever purchased from CT? I've bought quite a bit from them in the past and one of my favourite things is that not only is their fabric varied and well priced, shipping is very affordable - even in Australia! For Aussies, you can get free shipping when you spend $100 US (which we all know is very easy to do).
So back to my pretty bundle. I chose a FQ bundle of Shimmer Tonals (Dark). Beautiful saturated colours with shimmery pearlescent prints.
I paired the Shimmer Tonals with mainly Kaffe Fasset fabric prints to create the Diamond Exchange Quilt. It's really got a whole lot of colour and pattern going on, which I absolutely love. I find that if I use lots of bright colourful fabrics in my quilts, it makes me a bazillion times happier than when I use neutral fabrics.
By the way, I've just checked the website and Connecting Threads have a lovely selection of Kaffe Fasset fabrics available. I may just need to do a little bit of online shopping after I'm finished here.
After the quilt top was all finished, I needed to find a suitable backing fabric. I had a 3.5 yard piece in my stash which wasn't quite wide enough - even after cutting the fabric in half and piecing it.
I had seen a video online where the lady cut the fabric on the diagonal, slid the pieces up/down which once sewn together, created a shorter yet wider backing. It was just what I needed.
It worked perfectly for this quilt. You can see where I pieced my large triangle pieces across the middle to make the backing fabric fit.
I can't seem to find that video right now, but if it comes across my feed, I'll pop back in here to this blog post and update. It's such a handy video to watch and follow when fabric isn't quite wide enough for a quilt back.
I all-over quilted it with a loopy meandering design on my new Juki. It's the first large quilt that I've free motion quilted on my Juki TL-2010Q (straight stitch machine). I must admit that I REALLY do prefer the jumbo bobbins that Berninas use, but it was generally a good experience - and fast!
I ended up binding my quilt with the same fabric which I used for my outer setting triangles. It has orange in the print which works with the back of the quilt too.
Thank you to Connecting Threads for sending the beautiful fabric. It certainly gave me the push to get out of my sewing rut and make a new quilt.
It is so good to hear from you again! The newest quilt is very pretty, what size is it? Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteGreat fabric combinations! Glad to see you back blogging again! Gail at the cozy quilter
ReplyDeleteLove it...good to have you back.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful bright happy completed quilt. You must be so pleased with it. I've seen backs made like that before. It's a great way to do it. You came back with an excellent and typically Anorina style quilt.
ReplyDeletewhat a vibrant return to our inbox! happy to see you. AND you brought an interesting much needed method for stretching our backing fabric.
ReplyDeleteJust love all that color and pizazz. Such an interesting quilt.
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