My Quilt Finish this week!
This month I shared free tutorials for two quilt blocks because it’s so cool how these two simple blocks make a stunning pattern when put together. Can you see the simple nine patches and humble snow ball blocks here? Visit the tutorial for more about that. The binding and solid white fabrics are both Kona Cotton (celery and snow).
I let the piecing guide me on my quilting choices… and my first intention was to quilt it all using my walking foot. I used the walking foot to do the curved lines around the nine-patch seams, making that flower pattern. I love it, although I see I need more practice. 🙂
Then I decided to ‘echo in’ with my walking foot for the snowball patches. I did the first one with my walking foot (the one above) and I love how accurate the walking foot make my quilting lines. But quilting that one block took 2 hours! It took so long because I had to stop and turn the quilt around a zillion times.
So after that I switched to the same pattern using free motion quilting. I didn’t have to turn the quilt around at all but my lines aren’t nearly so accurately placed. They wobble a lot and the space between them varies a lot. But each block only took me 20-30 minutes. I wish I could have done all of the snowballs with the more accurate walking foot, but I just didn’t have time.
Here’s the back. I had so much fun putting this together with one big orphan block (the star), some leftover Harmony (from Blend Fabrics) and three similar taupe fabrics. I was pinning the star and print pieces to my quilt wall (like I learned from Elizabeth Hartman’s free Creative Quilt Backs Craftsy class) when I noticed the empty step shape at the bottom and decided to fill it in with neutral fabrics from my stash.
This is one of my favorite parts of the quilt because it shows off the quilting.
So, what have you been sewing up this week? Did you make something with one of my free sewing tutorials or patterns? I would love to see! Tag me on Instagram @sewcanshe.
Happy Sewing!
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Your new quilt is really wonderful, I love the quilting and the backing!
Thanks Christine!
Your quilt is stunning twice! The front and the back. This back is a quilt in its own right. Great effect the quilting.
Thank you Nesta… such kind words! xoxo
What a fabulous finish, Caroline! The quilting is amazing. And the use of those two simple block designs has incredible results. Well done!
Thank you Lorna, hope you are having a great weekend! xoxo
That quilt is GORGEOUS! Love it.
Thank you Ren!
I really do like those blocks, and your quilting is fine. Definitely go free motion – way too much turning otherwise, and when the quilt is washed, it will all blend together anyway. Excellent!
I just washed it and it looks great! Thanks Barb, I’m glad you agree. xoxo
I noticed that your 9-patch blocks use the fabric randomly, but your snowball blocks all have the same fabric on each corner, and you only used the black fabric and some of the rose fabric for the snowball blocks. I don’t see any of the black fabric in the 9-patch blocks. What was your idea behind that? Why not randomize the corners of the snowball blocks, too? Just asking, because I’m trying to get better at colors and fabric usage by understanding how the "pros" think!
Hi Alice… you’d better not call me a pro, cause I’m not! This is what happened: I saved my black Harmony print for the corners, but then I got so carried away making 9-patches that I didn’t have enough of the black print to make the right number of snowballs. That’s when I decided to make pink snowballs too. And I had almost enough. I needed to make one more snowball and had neither pink nor black print and just threw in some solid black. I love scrappy quilts so I don’t mind having the odd block in there, but I’m sure there are others who would disagree. I could have ordered more Harmony prints, but who can wait that long? Thanks for asking, the more quilts you make the easier it will get to put fabrics together. 🙂
Caroline