Pinwheel Pips Quilt finish

Another quilt done - that's 5 this year so far, not including the minis. Pretty good going for me, I'm really happy with that! So, without out further ado, here it is, Pinwheel Pips!

This quilt was made for my 3 year old daughter E. She loves dogs, scooters and swings, so the Sherbet Pips fabric was a perfect choice for her. She has asked every single day for a month if it was finished yet, so I was really pleased to hand it over to her today. It makes a perfect cape for Super Lady, her current favourite imaginary persona.....

I have mixed feelings about this quilt really. I enjoyed piecing it and I think my accuracy in cutting and piecing has improved hugely since earlier this year, and it shows here. When I was sewing together my rows of pinwheels, the vast majority of them matched up perfectly!

 

There are a few that didn't, they don't worry me too much, and one that was completely off that I had to unpick 6 or 7 times to get it remotely close. But overall I am happy with the piecing. My job is so stressful that I like not to stress about quilting, and everything lining up perfectly and tend to go with the flow once it looks ok, I know some quilters would hate this approach but it works for me!

I also did my first attempt at a pieced back - a very simple one. I used one leftover block, put some borders on it and pieced it in the centre of the backing. I did an ok job of matching it up, one side is perfect, the other is slightly off but the quilting through it looks ok, so I'm happy with that.

I quilted it on the diagonal lines, 3/8" on either side of them to give a double line. I found the quilting harder than I anticipated -I'm not sure if the seams were stretching a little, being on the bias (or is that my imagination, I would have thought they wouldn't move once the quilt top was sewn together) and even though I basted it with pins a little closer together than normal, it seemed to move around a little on me and I have a few puckers. It was hard to keep the lines dead straight at some of the intersections because of the bulk of the seams meeting even though I had done a lot of work to make them lie flat. This is the first time I've quilted something this lightly and I think I really do prefer the more densely quilted look, although I like the squashiness of this.

I used a flat sheet for the backing, having seen other quilters do this and I'm kind of regretting it already. I bought a sheet on sale and I know it was cheap, and its polycotton, but I threw it in the wash last night and its bobbled already. Now, I use polycotton sheets quite a bit here when I can't get cotton, and I've never, ever, had a sheet bobble on me before, no matter how little I paid for it or how much it was used or washed. So I'm pretty annoyed and feel its taken the sheen off my quilt :-( I even, in a mad moment this morning, considered unpicking the binding and the quilting and requilting it. Hmm. I'm actually still considering that one. I just put so much work into the quilt top that I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not totally loving the end result.

I bound it with the remaining half yard of Its a Hoot eggs fabric, the gray colour compliments the colours in the quilt really well I think.

But, looking on the positives, E absolutely loves it and I have a cushion/pillow to match it for her so its a lovely set for her to snuggle in watching DVDs, or to drag around the playroom for her games.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Pinwheel Pips
Made For: my daugher E
Fabric: Sherbet Pips half layer cake (won in a giveaway thanks to Kristie at OCD) and 1 additional yard
Batting: Warm & White
Size: 51" x 51"
Quilting: Straight line quilting on the diagonal seams
Pattern:  Simple pinwheels & border

This is another one to mark off my Summer Sewing list!  Yay!

I'm linking this up to {Sew} Modern Monday, Fabric Tuesday  and some other great blogs - check out my sidebar for a full list of links ------>>

WIP Wednesday # 6

 

Can you believe its almost April? I can't quite understand where the days are going. Its been super busy in my life this week, mostly in life outside this blog, with work being particularly demanding! It sort of feels like I haven't gotten a lot achieved, but actually I have.



In Progress:


Friday Night Sew In was a success here and I have made good progress on the Cosmo bag. I have the exterior pretty much totally completed and just need to do the lining and the button at this stage. I really like the colour combo too now that its made up (I wasn't sure I would when I cut them).

I also got started with picking my fabrics and cutting in the Lily's Quilts Quiltalong. I'm very happy now with the fabrics I chose, and the blue background came about purely by chance but I think it will work. That brown bundle of fabric in the middle is to see if an extra internal circle would work in the middle and I think it will. I need to start piecing it next.

After spending all last night working out measurements, I finally started a new quilt tonight with my It's a Hoot layer cake. This quilt is for my goddaughter; she will be making her First Communion in May and I thought that a keepsake throw quilt would be a nice gift and something she could take with her through her life. The Its a Hoot fabric is perfect for what I want. I'm doing a simple design, alternating 2 different blocks. One is a 5" square with 2 layers of borders; the other is a 4 patch square with borders. The finished blocks will be 9" each. I'll add white sashing of about 3" betweeen each of the squares to make them stand out.

Tonight I cut all my squares and border strips:

Then I made up a trial block of each. This is the first:

 

And this is the second:

I love how these turned out, and I love how the fabrics interact with each other. Tomorrow will be my favourite part, laying out the fabrics and figuring out how it will all go together!

That's my little report - I think its going to be a very quiet week this week as I'm visiting my parents at the weekend and away at a work conference early next week. So my apologies in advance! But hopefully after that I'll be picking it all up again!

I'll be linking up as always to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.