Friday, December 27

A special quilt

xmasquilt


There was one handmade gift under our Christmas Tree this year. Luna (my 8 year old) and I made this for my husband. We started working on this Blue and White (with a bit of Red and Grey) quilt this September. I did most of the sewing and Luna arranged most of the 2.5" squares into blocks of 6  by 6 squares and some additional 'skinny' blocks of 3 by 6 squares. 

To create a random yet balanced colour arrangement we followed a 'special' formula per block: at least 3 solid white squares, 1 or 2 red squares, about 5 grey squares and the rest all blue, or white with a blue print. In addition to that we aimed to put 2-3 very dark squares (blue or grey) in each block and a couple of solids. I used fabrics from my stash, from my scraps and bought the white-with-grey- lettering fabric for this project at IKEA. Initially for the back but as I wanted to make the quilt a little larger I used it for the borders as well. I was not brave enough to try mitered corners on the border though... The binding is a dark blue Kona cotton. 

I free motion quilted it in a loopy pattern and I clearly still need to work on my quilting skills, unless you really like angular loops and a crazy mix of longer and shorter stitches. ;) 

miloxmasquilt

My husband likes the quilt a lot though and so does Milo... I really need to finish some more quilts next year as I have a stack of finished quilt tops in my cupboard. I'm just not so crazy about the quilting part of quilting... and I have a tempting stack of low volume fat quarters and a new quilt ruler for cutting triangles and hexagons and such. :) 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too! 

13 comments:

  1. Oh it's beautiful! Love it! xxx

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  2. I love this quilt.... You and your daughter are quite the team_! What an awesome gift!

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  3. The quilt turned out beautiful!

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  4. What a wonderful gift!! And great thinking with your block "formula".
    I know what you mean about the quilting part of quilting. I too have a pile of finished tops, but the uncut fabric calls my name much more strongly :-).
    E xx

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  5. What a great idea to use the Bitten fabric as a border. I may have some in my stash. :) Have you tried reducing the speed of your machine when you machine quilt?

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  6. Lovely quilt! Nice colour mix & border especially.

    May I recommend hand-quilting then? Oh sure it takes much longer and hurts much more but it does grant you a lot of control of the stitches. As I write this I realise how it sounds but I still recommend it - even as a combo of machine & hand stitching. x

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    1. Thank you! I tried hand quilting for the first time this year on a mini quilt and it went rather well actually. This quilt is rather large though and I really wanted to finish before Christmas :) Also: I don't have a quilting hoop or frame. Maybe I should get one?!?

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  7. Love that you and your daughter made a quilt for your husband. So sweet to do together and makes it much more special.
    Love your kitty too ~ they always seem so attracted to any quilt!

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  8. What a lovely quilt. I love the colors you used. Glad it is loved by the husband and Milo giving his approval.

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  9. Wonderful quilt, Nicole ! I love the colours, too, and I always love the look of multiple little squares!

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  10. What a wonderful and special gift

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  11. Beautiful Quilt ... I have been Quilting 27 years & I still don't mitre borders !! who has enough time in their lives to work that one out !! I do however use a mitre corner binding but that is easy:) Hope to see more of your quilts in 2014

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