Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

I finished sewing the binding on this monstrosity over a week ago, but it took me forever to get pictures because (1) it’s really hard to get decent pictures of a quilt this big and (2) I’m disappointed in the quilting.  I couldn’t figure out why some sections of the quilt seem to pull in a strange way (especially since I followed the rules on this one and actually prewashed all the fabric) and so I asked my expert friends at my last guild meeting and they said it looks like it happened when it was being quilted.  Because of the size, I had this quilted by a long-armer (before I took my class) and I’m so disappointed that it’s not better.  I plan on using this heavily at photoshoots, and I’m really hoping that the flaws won’t show up with a family or bride + groom sitting on it or snuggled under it.  If they do I’ll probably just cry.

But enough of the negativity.  There’s a lot to love about this one, too.  The size.  It’s big.  The colors–a fabric mix largely from the Central Park line, but with a smattering of others, too.  The pattern.  It’s from the Fresh Quilting book, and is the best stash-buster quilt pattern ever.  It takes a bunch of fat quarters, but it leaves you a large enough scrap that you don’t feel panicky about using your fat quarter up entirely.  It’s fast and fun to make, and shows off the fabric really well because each piece is so large.  I added a row to make the quilt even bigger (I might have actually added both a row and a column–I can’t remember).  I loved it enough that I hand sewed the binding to the back.

It was so insanely windy that this is the best shot I could get of the back.  It’s a vertical strip of patterns on the off-center left of the white backing.