Here is a project that's been done for quite a while, but I just hadn't posted it yet. Back when I made Dragonflies & Butterflies, I had some squares left over. I decided to make a checkerboard design.
To get perfect points, I tried a trick where I ironed the squares onto a single piece of white and then sewed seems into that. It worked very well except that the fusing web I used was too heavy-duty. In order to reach full crib-size, I used some leftover fabric from the back of D&B and some yellow from another project from long ago.
Many moons ago, I machine quilted for the first time on a full-sized quilt. It sucked. Since then, I hadn't tried it. Then I got the walking foot. After the ease of Variegated Texture 2, I thought I'd give machine quilting another try. Sure enough - it is loads easier with the walking foot.
My one design regret with this one is that the purple backing fabric shows through the yellow. The batting and the yellow fabric were both too thin. Hopefully, I can find an owner who won't be bothered by it as much as me.
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Dragonflies and Butterflies has returned from being longarm quilted!
Can you see the dragonflies? I think I may have gone with too dark a pink thread color for the top. It's not photgraphing as dark as it really is. It's growing on me, though. Having this done wasn't even expensive! 44$ including the batting.
Hopefully I will get a chance to bind it this weekend. Look for a completed photo next week, as well as an update on Juno's Blankie.
In the meantime, I have managed to get a friend addicted to this stuff. Here is a preview of her first project:
We may have gone overboard with a theme. It has definately crossed the line from "appropriate anytime of the year" to "only in February." Whatever. It's beautiful, we're having fun, and I am trying out a bunch of new things on it.
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So last spring I was looking for a specific black and white print to finish a certain project. I ended up visiting a number of shops in my area which I had never visited before. This had the unfortunate effect of causing me to pick up fabrics while I was in these shops. One thing I discovered is that Moda is king of the fabric companies right now. Boy, do they make some beautiful prints. What is worse, they sell sets of these prints in precut form for each line of fabrics. You can buy 2 inch wide strips, or 10 inch squares, or 5 inch squares. For someone like me, who is highly attracted to both sets of things, and scrap-type quilts, this is a nightmare. What this means is that I can buy a 5 inch square of practically every fabric Moda makes. I can collect them all! So far I have resisted. I still dream of a 5 inch square of every single 30s reproduction print ever made, however.
I did encounter a set of 5 inch squares ("nickles") that I couldn't resist. It was pouring down rain that day, and the prints were just so springy! I went home and decided to use a nine-patch crib quilt design from Quilt: Handmade Style. Too bad I'd need a second nickle pack! That gave me a chance to get the fabric for the back, anyway. Fortunately, I already had the white print. That had been for a project that never got off the ground. Thrifty!
I had to set this project aside at the begining of the summer to finish the signal flags one, but I was able to finish it off right after.
I decided to do something new with this one. I am getting it long-arm quilted at the shop. I am getting dragonflies stitched all over it! Another new thing I did: not pre-washing the fabric. Because it came in 5 inch squares, pre-washing didn't make sense. So we shall see what happens its first time through the dryer!
So that's the story! Here is the picture of the finished top, with the backing fabric:
I eagerly await the phone call telling me to come and pick it up!
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