Finished Orbit QAL

I've finished a quilt! I showed the progress I'd made in the Orbit QAL that Lindsey of LR Stitched is running a week or two ago and now I've managed to finish!

I quilted it using a spiral pattern with my walking foot. I drew the start of the spiral with a pencil and started quilting from the centre. I hadn't thought through the logistics of quilting a spiral and realised after one circle round that I was going to end up with almost the whole quilt in the throat as I got near the edges because of the direction I'd drawn my spiral. So I ripped it out and started again, drawing my spiral in the opposite direction this time.

Above is a picture of the easier direction in case anyone is thinking of doing a spiral.

I really like this quilting pattern, although I got a bit bored and started spacing my lines further apart as I moved out to speed up the quilting a bit. But I quite like the way it looks now.

After a consultation with my 9 year old son, I was advised that the binding should be smooth and soft like his favourite quilt (aka my favourite quilt that I never get a chance to use because he has adopted it)

 So I used some Anna Maria Horner Voile to bind it. I have to give my boy his due. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to binding a quilt, and I LOVE this binding! It doesn't quite match any of the colours in the quilt and I think that makes it look better. The backing is an IKEA print I got for £2.85 a metre - bargain!!!

I tried to get photos of it on Friday when I finished but a certain rascal had other ideas!

My new quilt is now crumpled, covered in dog hair and what looks like chocolate, after a weekend of keeping my 3 little folk warm, and that's just the way I like it :) I'm going to let the kids and Murphy decide who it belongs to now ;)

Happy Monday!
Fiona x

Orbiting

When Lindsey of LR Stitched announced she was running the Orbit QAL I fell in love with the pattern! I think it's the perfect pattern for showing off large scale prints and decided it was the perfect time to use my much loved Madrona Road fabric.

I pulled this bundle ages ago and planned to make an Autumnal quilt but suddenly it's almost spring and I wasn't feeling very autumnal any more ;)

I pulled out the browns and tried to make it a bit more fresh and this is what I can up with. The donkey Madrona Road print reminds me of an orchard so I tried to go for colours that made me think of apples.

I had a bit of a hard day yesterday and decided that chain piecing was the way forward. I got the quilt top finished off this morning and I'm completely in love! I really wish I'd made it bigger, but it was my last few scraps of a couple of those fabrics and I don't have enough to go bigger. Funnily the Madrona Road fabric is kind of lost and doesn't look as good as I thought it would, but that's okay.

It's a good size for snuggling at about 60" square, and is the perfect pattern for a quick feel-better quilt. I think from cutting to finished quilt top it took me 5 or 6 hours. It was a really good way to bring a little bit of comfort into a horrible day.

Now I'm planning how to quilt it :)

Have a good weekend!
Fiona x