Done!

Well, I made it!  My Seascapes coin quilt is bound, washed, and perfectly crinkly.

And as luck would have it, today was a gorgeous day for a photo shoot. It was almost too sunny for pictures, but after one hundred inches of snow...  I'm not complaining. Not.one.bit.

The sun was trying to melt the last of the snow. Hopefully this is the last quilt-on-snow photo for awhile!

And now it's time for a self-imposed break. Rushing through two quilts in six weeks was a little much, and I need to recharge. That won't stop me from planning my next project though :)

A Good Day

Today was a rare treat -- an entirely child-free day off of work! I sewed my little heart out and loved every second of it!

With my deadline looming I focused on my seascapes quilt. I finished the quilting first thing this morning and then squared things up. Once it's all trimmed up, you can really see the finished product  coming together. The whole process leaves me a little giddy :) And I was pleasantly surprised with the finished size on this one-- a pretty generous throw at 72" x 51".

Next it was time to prepare the binding. I had planned on a solid white binding fabric to play up the floaty-zen feel, but that quickly changed when I pulled out a great Joel Dewberry print, gifted to me by the wonderfully generous and talented Mama Peaches. Once I saw those green and aqua flowers on a sea of navy, there was no going back! It's a perfect match for the quilt and I think it will give it just the right amount of zing. And now I can say quite happily that this little quilt has grown on me. Thank you, Nellie!




And one more picture, because the binding is truly that fabulous!

I'm really hoping to find time this weekend to sew on the binding, but things are pretty hectic. But one way or another, finished pictures will be coming soon!

Marathon Sunday

Whoops, life intervened and I didn't do any sewing Friday *or* Saturday. But, wow, did I ever make up for lost time today. Thanks to Papa Bee I was able to indulge in a little quilting marathon, and took this WIP from quilt top to quilting in a single day. A few highlights below...

I pieced the back! I had planned the quilt top in advance, but I really wish I had thought about the back a little more. I had almost an entire charm pack leftover, and felt a little overwhelmed by my options (more coins? full squares? a patch work section... patchwork squares on point? Ack!). In the end though, I decided less was more and went with a single row of charm squares... which means I have a LOT of charms left. More fodder for my scrap bin?

For the background fabric, I decided to highlight a sea-green that I found in one of the prints. Bella's "Green Tea" was almost a perfect match. It's not the first time this color came to my rescue either, I used it in my Good Fortune quilt, too. 

I basted the quilt sandwich! Ugh, a fresh reminder why basting is still my least favorite part about quilting. There's never enough room and my back always aches, but at least it's done! Looks like I missed a picture showing the bazillion safety pins and the cat I had to shoo away 100 times. But you can imagine them ;-)

And I started quilting! I experimented with quilting gloves and sped right through a quarter of the quilting in a under an hour. Huzzah! I did sort of compromise on the quilting though, and chose a simple medium/large stipple. In my dream world this quilt would be swirls ALL day long (seriously, it's a beachy quilt, it needed swirls!), but I haven't even tried mastering those yet. Someday though!

10 days to go! I think (I hope!) I'm in good shape, but you never know when you have a toddler! 

Coming together

Phew, it's been a couple of intense sewing nights, but I am done piecing the quilt top! My goal for the  weekend is to piece the backing and baste the quilt sandwich. Go go go!