GRAND REVEAL – My Quilt…

So I don’t know if you happen to have noticed, but in the last week or so I’ve had a real tidy up on my blog…
Some pages have disappeared, and there are some new pages to peruse which I’m super loving.

I did this for me, because I love to be able to look back at my previous posts, (sometimes I refer back to them even), and it makes it much easier to find things or get a quick dose of inspiration.

In case you read this via email etc let me introduce you to the new pages…

Now all my finished quilts, sewing projects and renovations posts are grouped together by year in lovely easy to find mosaics…

Did I mention already that
I LOVE seeing all my projects together by photo like that!
So.easy.to.find.stuff!

What I did not like about this exercise on the other hand was the fact there was only 1 quilt finish for 2013!
Not only that but technically that quilt was finished in December for a Christmas present so if I was going to get picky it doesn’t even really count for this calendar year anyway!!
And I call myself a quilter.
I know I’ve had a lot of life changing events happen this year but still – Pffft not cool!!

The most distressing part of all was that I DID finish a quilt top before we moved to New Zealand, sent it away to be quilted, received it back from the quilter and I have even been using said quilt on my bed for the last 2 months.
However, because I had not bothered to bring myself to bind it, I could not put it on the finishes list.
Or blog about it.
Tut tut tut.

Nothing better to spring a girl into action really.

So today I finally got busy and did some binding.
May I please introduce you to MY quilt…

The Finish…

The Stats…
This quilt measures 94 inches by 94 inches. It’s a biggy!
The squares were 10 inches uncut – the equivalent of layer cake squares
It is 9 squares by 9 squares then with a half width (so 5 inch cut) border around the outside

The top was made by me
The back piecing and quilting were done by my lovely and talented friend Jeannette.
The binding is done by me and is attached by machine.

The pattern is not as random as it seems…
In the top photo you can see the pattern the best. I started in the middle with a neutral square, surrounded that by coloured squares, surrounded that by neutral squares and so on.
Here’s a progress shot showing the pattern more clearly…

That photo was before I realised I’d made it WAY too big and cut the outside row of squares down to half width.
Maths fail!
Sometimes it pays to work out the plan more precisely first!
But all was not lost because the spare bits were just perfect to piece into the back…

I cannot tell you how much I’m in love with this quilt!!
I picked all my most cherished fabrics which is why I went for such a simple design…
I wanted the fabrics and colours to be the feature.
It is definitely my most favourite quilt to date!!
It goes perfectly with the colour scheme in our new bedroom, despite the fact that I picked the paint colour and started painting 2 days before it arrived back from the quilter.
Phew!

I’m super glad I asked Jeannette to quilt this for me. The quilting just gives it that extra something and whatever standard I would have managed on my standard arm machine would have been far faaaar beneath this.
I’ve used Jeanette twice now and would absolutely recommend her if you are in Australia.
She’s so great and accommodating to work with!!
And postage in the Auspost express bags is not too bad.

There you have it. Finally another finish for 2013.

Now excuse me while I go and contemplate finishing the back to Abbie’s Tutti Fruity quilt.
Since the top’s done and the back’s almost done it has got to be the next project to finish surely…

PS I finally made the tutorial for my machine binding technique while I bound this. It’s actually now written and scheduled so watch this space for this “Share it Saturday”…

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