My finished Swoon!

So it seems I am on a bit of a roll when it comes to finishing things off :)

Drumroll........

I finished my Swoon quilt!!! Yay!

I hadn't expected to be quite so excited to be finished this, but I am and I love it!

It has actually been in use on my bed for a few weeks now with raw edges - it's getting cold in Scotland! But yesterday I managed to get the binding on and it's now washed and dried and looking very pretty if I do say so myself ;)

 I had originally decided to hand quilt this, but after I started, I realised it was just going to join the queue of quilts waiting for me to finish the hand quilting. So I left the centre block with it's perle stitches and machine quilted the rest. I quite like that the centre block looks a bit different to the rest - and it's a little reminder to me to think things through before I start something!

It shrank a little bit when I washed it, I think about 2", and ended up at 78" square. I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding and I really really love the weight and drapeyness of it. It's thinner than some other cotton wadding, but I prefer that, and it's really lovely and soft once it's washed.

The backing is my favourite print from Joel dewberry's Heirloom line and I decided to bind it in the same print as the backing (I actually made the binding from the lengths of backing I trimmed off after quilting) I stitched the binding down with my machine, using my new machine binding skills :)

I've started binding using strips that are 1 3/4" wide rather than 2 1/2" and I really like the finish of binding this way and it uses less fabric. Would any of you be interested in a tutorial on how I now do my binding?

For those interested
Pattern is Swoon by Camille Roskelley
Fabric used is Heirloom by Joel Dewberry in the citrine colourway, and a couple of Painter's Canvas by Laura Gunn.
I used white cotton poplin rather than quilting cotton for the white background and I like how crisp and fresh it feels.
I used Empress cotton thread to  quilt it - love it, it's my new favourite - thanks to Alison :)
It's quilted by me, trying out various quilting patterns a la my Angela Waters book

Now I need to tart up my bedroom curtains so the co-ordinate with the new quilt, and make my bedroom a bit prettier, but first I have promised my husband I will hard-wire ethernet cables round the downstairs today, so the internet will be faster and we can stream movies through the Sky box. Sigh...... better go get my hammer, drill and cable clips ready. I would much rather be playing with fabric!

Happy Wednesday
Fiona x