Monday, September 9, 2013

Swooning.....time to show off your quilt tops!

I'm still in love with the Swoon pattern. And I hope you all are too! I finally managed to get my quilt top done, only a week behind schedule, and I love, love, love how it turned out!



It's for my own bedroom, which has a duck egg blue wallpaper on the main wall, so I chose my palette to match that. Its a bit more restricted, colour-wise, than I normally do, and despite being a bit nervous about making it work, I think it does.

This is such a great pattern to make, and at 80" x 80", its a whopper of a size. You can see on the bottom left where I managed to stand on the bottom of the quilt top trying to hang it. Oh well. It will come out in the wash. I was just glad it fit on the swing frame, as otherwise I had no way of hanging it anywhere else for a picture and would have to wait for a dry day to take a picture with it spread on the ground (pretty challenging in an Irish Autumn).

I do have to say though, I'm pretty happy to be done trimming HSTs! That was the worst part of making these blocks, all the HSTs to trim. (I'm typing this knowing that the next border in my Made to Measure quilt top is entirely HSTs, which is why I've been putting it off for months).

My next issue to figure out is how to quilt it. I'm really, really tempted to handquilt it. As in, I am very close to doing it even though it would take a while. But then I would love the texture of a stippled quilt on the bed. But stippling this huge quilt would be my idea of a less-than-fun quilting task. Hmmmm. I am still mulling it over. Opinions anyone?


And I'd love to see your Swoon top if you have yours done - feel free to link up below so we can all go visit. If you do link up, please go have a peek at some of the other completed quilt tops and leave some comments. I'll leave this linky open until mid-November because I know everyone is working at different paces on this one.

16 comments:

Katy Cameron said...

It looks gorgeous! As for the quilting, well, to be honest I'd rather stick hot pokers in my eyes than hand quilt, so perhaps my opinion might be a bit biased... ;o)

Mack and Mabel said...

The Linky is a great idea. I hope to have mine finished soon. Not sure I'd have the patience to hand quilt this, but I think it would look wonderful.

Cindy said...

Woo hoo! It's one gorgeous whopper :) Great color combo. Trimming all of those HSTs was 100% worth your time, effort and pain! xx

Kelsey said...

Wow Sarah this is stunning, I love your colour scheme! I was feeling really half hearted about finish up the sashing this week (always seems more of a pain than I should). After seeing your top all finished up, I'm motivated to get my sashing on and see it all come together! Thanks for the extra push :)

Unknown said...

You could do a mixture of both? Some straight line stitch in the ditch to stabilize and then hand-quilt the heck out of each block. You've spent so long making it, it would be a shame not to quilt it like you really want to!

Lynz said...

Oh, your colours are perfect! And I'm the last person to advise about quilting - I do such a lot of straight line quilting because it is quick and easiest!!

Sheryl said...

I think Swoon is just about the perfect pattern for hand quilting. Some echo lines around the main blocks would be beautiful

Leigh Anne said...

Your Swoon turned out amazing!! I'm also stuck on the quilting. I had a plan in mind that I tried on a smaller quilt and although I think it would look great I am hesitating because of the time it would take!

Kirsten said...

Your Swoon quilt is beautiful - love the colours you have used!

Judith, Belfast said...

Oh S this is really beautiful! Jxo

Svetlana said...

your Swoon looks fantastic, Sarah. Love the colors you chose, so pretty.

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

i'm not swooning, but I love your fabric choices!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Beautiful!
I may even be tempted to send it away for quilting, as I am so out of ideas!

Rachell said...

oh no! I'm nowhere near being done! life has a way of getting in your way, you know? I'll post some more progress soon, I promise! I re-injured my wrists which have tendinitis, as well as my iron needing to be replaced. so I'm trying to take it easy. I'm chain piecing all those HST and flying geese and stacking them up in their baggies. ironing fest later!

Anonymous said...

I really love the mix of fabrics you used, the colours are lovely. I must confess that my swoon is currently at the longarm quilters... I felt it deserved better that I can manage on my little machine!

Sarah said...

I finished my Swoon top in July. I used the Ruby fabric. I really like your colour palette and think it will look great in your room. Mine is going out for long arm quilting. No way I'm tackling something that big on my own!