Batiks are still sitting here in my sewing room and more gift quilts are floating around in my head. My last one didn't get a lot of awes from anyone (except me) so I figured I'd better change it up a bit since I had 3 more sets of the same fabric! It is Hoffman's Sparrow in Bali Crackers.
So I found a different pattern and added more of a muslin from Primitive Gatherings that actually went well with the batiks to maybe tone it down a bit.
This is a pattern from Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles Times Two which she called Scratch...because of the Chinese coins blocks.
This quilt has a story with it. I was thinking if I had smaller pieces of this fabric it would be more palatable to others. But I really didn't read the quilt instructions very thoroughly I was just kind of excited that I found a pattern in my cupboard that was specific to 10 inch squares. So as I'm cutting this up (with a fervor and not second guessing my commitment!), I finally noticed that the pieces weren't really that small. I started sewing anyway. I was grumbling because the pattern didn't really make good use of the 10 inch squares. There was so much leftover in cut pieces that aren't readily useful for another project other than scraps. I was also looking at the blocks thinking that this wasn't anymore toned down than the one before. Oh my...well, either it's going to be a dud or I will be pleasantly surprised...I wanted to give it as a gift to someone but maybe I could sell it cheap on Ebay and get at least some of the cost of fabric back. Finally the muslin was added and I started to get hopeful. Yes, it did help quite a bit. Whew!
So I quilted it with just a meander and called it good especially since quilt holding DH also gave it a thumbs up....though his arms were hurting after holding it up. It's kind of heavy. Measures 68 X 80.
The moral of the story...don't give up. Sometimes the completed project looks better than the parts. Which I certainly hope is true after starting a project in a quilt class yesterday with some wild color Kaffe and others prints!
more on that later :-)
PS. I'm linking to Confessions of A Fabric Addict's Whoop it up Fridays.
So I found a different pattern and added more of a muslin from Primitive Gatherings that actually went well with the batiks to maybe tone it down a bit.
This quilt has a story with it. I was thinking if I had smaller pieces of this fabric it would be more palatable to others. But I really didn't read the quilt instructions very thoroughly I was just kind of excited that I found a pattern in my cupboard that was specific to 10 inch squares. So as I'm cutting this up (with a fervor and not second guessing my commitment!), I finally noticed that the pieces weren't really that small. I started sewing anyway. I was grumbling because the pattern didn't really make good use of the 10 inch squares. There was so much leftover in cut pieces that aren't readily useful for another project other than scraps. I was also looking at the blocks thinking that this wasn't anymore toned down than the one before. Oh my...well, either it's going to be a dud or I will be pleasantly surprised...I wanted to give it as a gift to someone but maybe I could sell it cheap on Ebay and get at least some of the cost of fabric back. Finally the muslin was added and I started to get hopeful. Yes, it did help quite a bit. Whew!
So I quilted it with just a meander and called it good especially since quilt holding DH also gave it a thumbs up....though his arms were hurting after holding it up. It's kind of heavy. Measures 68 X 80.
The moral of the story...don't give up. Sometimes the completed project looks better than the parts. Which I certainly hope is true after starting a project in a quilt class yesterday with some wild color Kaffe and others prints!
more on that later :-)
PS. I'm linking to Confessions of A Fabric Addict's Whoop it up Fridays.
