enJOY it

Hands down, this is my favorite project so far. Quilts are awesome. There are so many steps, but if you break it down each one is easy enough. And the errors somehow make them more charming. I am totally hooked on smaller size quilts (this is my third quilt, but first that's smaller than a queen) and have already decided I'll be giving them as Christmas presents this year (get excited, Mom & Steph!). I also might be making us seven more between now and then. We'll see.

When I last shared, I had a quilt top ready to roll. The next step was to
sandwich it (navy backing, cotton batting in the middle and triangles on top) into an acutal quilt and begin my favorite part, machine stitching it all together.

I don't have any special tools (like a walking foot) for quilting on a machine and so my technique is just to manhandle it all through that tiny space. After machine stitching a much larger quilt, this one was a dream to do and I was excited to try something fancier and actually create a pattern on the backside.

I decided to stitch diagonal lines from one side to the other where the triangles met on their longest sides. Because I wanted it to be even, this meant two lines – one down each side of the seam.

I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out but I love the effect. The top
is neat and clean and the back (despite some wonky lines) looks complete.

I'm happy I went with a dark color for the backing and the green thread pops just enough.

The last step was hand-stitching the binding into place (so the seam is completely invisible). A striped binding is why I wanted to do this project in the first place, and I think it helps "modernize" all the floral patterns on the front.

Yes, this is for sure, one of my favorite projects.

I have been sharing peeks on Instagram and got a few requests for a full quilting tutorial. I am going to try and get one together for this exact quilt in the next few weeks. If you are anxious to get started though, I learned everything I know about quilting from Denyse Schmidt's Quilts.

Sweet. Keep an eye out for that how-to post.

This is project 13 of 27. I am
attempting to complete 27 craft projects using 27 different
materials before I turn 28 on 02.22.13. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest. Birthday challenges are my favorite. You can see the 26 Projects I completed while 26 here and the 27 materials I have used so far here.