I’m so excited to be finally finished with this one – only my third ever quilt. DH was working from home today because we were getting the car serviced, so I dragged him outside for a couple of photos. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to wait for the breeze to stop, it’s been pouring with rain for a couple of days, so we were determined to make use of the finer weather today.
See the progress of it here and here….
Sadly some of the quilting lines pulled the blocks a little out of shape, but you can definitely get the idea of the uneven and random shapes in the log cabin blocks. The 2 different background “sashing” fabrics blend really well together, so it’s turned from a design mishap to a design feature! I love the jagged and erratic nature of these blocks, it keeps your eye moving and always finding new shapes and contrasts.
I tossed up whether to run the set of extra strips along the seam between the two backing fabrics, or across it, and decided I liked the contrast between the 2 fabrics better. You can see that one line of quilting about 1/4 down from the top that really pulled everything out of alignment.
I tried a new spray baste this time, the 505 spray that everyone raves about. I have to admit that I was seriously unimpressed. It gummed up the bottom of my walking foot, causing all sorts of dragging and puckering, and it didn’t feel at all like it was holding the quilt securely – hence the stitching pulling the blocks out of alignment. I will be going back to the other spray in future.
Because of the rather random nature of the fabric used, choosing a binding fabric was especially challenging, and I am really happy with what I eventually found – this tiny spot in black and grey on a white background. We wanted to keep it light feeling, not a dark black based border which would look out-of-place with the light coloured sashing, and finding anything to perfectly match the purple or burgundy in the quilt was impossible. I had all but given up when I found this one, and it works really well.
We’ve already slept under it, the wool/poly batting is just the right Autumn weight and at 60″ square, it’s a perfect fit for our bed – we prefer quilts without miles of overhang.
So, considering it was a rather random project on my new sewing machine, I have learnt a lot from this quilt, and once again I’m super happy to have less than a tiny sandwich bag of scraps left over at the end of it.
I’m currently going through one of Leah Day‘s freemotion quilting classes on Craftsy – Freemotion Quilting a Sampler, and I’m looking forward to trying out some new skills on my next project! Yes, of course there’s a next project, I bought the fabric for it months ago. Patchwork and quilting is addictive like that.
So, any fabulous crafting projects you’ve finished lately?
Please be aware that there may be affiliate links in this content. Your support allows me to keep creating for you!
Lady ID
Ooooh nice – congratulations. I haven’t tried my hand at quilting but I would love to this year.
Cassandra
It’s a lot of learning, but very addictive fun. And there are so many fabrics and patterns, it’s easy to find something that you fall in love with!
knitnkwilt
I like how it turned out. the fabric, here and there, with the big diamond provides an interesting accent. and the binding is perfect.
Cassandra
Thanks a lot. I find it so satisfying to design my projects entirely from scratch!
kellygrahamartist
Just beautiful Cassandra! You are so clever. 🙂
Cassandra
Thanks Kelly! I’ve still got a lot to learn, but it’s a forgiving hobby – very few people will ever notice the wonky bits 😉
kellygrahamartist
I’m sure they just add to the charm 🙂