Tropical Delight

Well, I'm pleased to say that I have finally finished my one block wonder quilt, which I am dubbing "Tropical Delight" this month - more than five years after I made the top!

With all this snow we've been receiving here in New England, a little bright, tropical inspired quilt can certainly bring a little happiness to an otherwise white and brown landscape.

I used a yellow Oliver & S Modern Workshop print for the binding that I had in my stash.

The top was pieced with fabrics that I got from Joann's a while ago.  I'm pretty sure I was actually still in college, so it was probably 7-9 years ago.

The back is not my usual one fabric backing.  The floral you see here is the same fabric on the front of the quilt, just not all chopped up.

I quilted this one using an Angela Walters inspired floral design in a green So Fine! thread.

I'm very glad to have this one all finished - my goal as part of the "A Lovely Year of Finishes" challenge.

One Block Wonder Progress

I finally got around to quilting my One Block Wonder quilt as part of my February goal to complete a project.  This has also been on my to-quilt list for the Boston MQG WIP challenge. I made the top back in 2008 and its just been sitting around, waiting to be finished.

The quilt top just didn't lay flat, but I managed to quilt most of that out and I am pleased to say that this quilt actually lays pretty flat now.

This is the back that I made.  I don't usually make pieced backings, but I wanted to showcase the floral print on the back that was used to make the front of the quilt.  It's fun to see what the fabric looked like before it was chopped up and transformed into what you see on the front.

I quilted it using Angela Walters' flower design using a green So Fine! thread.  I'm really pleased with how the quilting turned out.

Now I need to pick out a fabric to use for the binding and finish this baby off.  I'm hopeful to have it done in the next few days.  

A Lovely Year of Finishes - February

Last month, for my Lovely Year of Finishes challenge, I decided to make a bag.  This month I feel like I should actually challenge myself to finishing a quilt, even though it's a short month and I know I'll be gone for QuiltCon.  That being said, I'm putting it out there that I will finish my One Block Wonder quilt that I started at least five years ago.

I've always loved this quilt top, but never knew how to quilt it.  Now that my machine quilting skills have improved, I think I know how I want to finish it.

I think one of the reasons I never finished this quilt was that it didn't lay completely flat, so I'm going to have to work around that.  I attribute that to the fact that the print I used was from Joann's and wasn't the highest quality, despite being a really great print for this technique.

Traveling for Work

Just a little note to say that I'm currently traveling for work, so there won't be any update until I return home late next week. 

In the mean time, I'm beginning to think about how I want to quilt this.  Right now I'm thinking all over swirls, but I thought I'd ask for any suggestions.  Thoughts?

Moving Along on the Bright Quilt

So I decided to shorten the quilt that I blogged about last time instead of making the cross in the center of the quilt.  I'm happy with my decision.  What I'm probably going to do is take some of the extra four-patches and incorporate them into the border somehow, possibly floating around the side.  

Here are a few pictures of my progress.  The first picture is of all of my four patches that will be going into the quilt.  The second one is a picture of the solid square and stripe strips.  The third is about 2/3 of the top pieced together.  I still have a few more rows to stitch together.  

  

Once I finish this top I'm really going to start focusing on machine quilting some of the tops that I've accumulated. Last year was the first time that I began machine quilting my quilt tops.  I'm still somewhat new to it, but I'm getting the hang of it.  I've been holding off quilting several tops until I'm much better at it.  I think I'm going to tackle the "One Block Wonder" quilt that I made a while back.  If you haven't tried it, I'd highly recommend it.  It was super easy and you'll never look at fabric the same way.  The best thing about it is that you can piece it together in rows. Below are a couple of pictures of that quilt.  It was originally a tropical piece of fabric that has been transformed into this quilt.  As I'm piecing the quilt shown above I've been thinking of how I want to quilt this quilt.  I'm thinking it's suited for some meandering or swirls... basically an all over pattern.

 

It's back to work tomorrow.  :(  I've enjoyed being able to spend so much time quilting during my vacation.  I probably won't be posting quite as much since I'm starting a new role tomorrow and don't quite know what to expect.