This is the quilt folded in half - roughly 50'' by 100''. Holding a 103'' square quilt up off the ground is no easy feat! I know I'm not a great photographer and was trying to get some natural lighting on a quasi-sunny day. This mix of indoor and outdoor photos will have to do. My helpers are only interested in helping so long...
This quilt is 'just' for us - a lightweight summer quilt for our bed at home.
Our previous/current summer quilt is great (its this Star of Bethlehem quilt from 2008...pre-blog days) but not quite large enough.
It covers the top of our queen sized bed, but only hangs over a couple of inches so by the time you get two adults underneath there are lots of air holes and blanket wars going on. So this new quilt was purposely made huge so that it has a large drop on three sides. The finished quilt is roughly 103'' square - pretty giant!
I felt very indulgent in choosing everything for this quilt. I chose a pattern I liked and chose my favorite colors. Its a little girly, I admit, but my husband doesn't really mind. I love the geometric and scrappy-but-not-too-scrappy look. I spent time on Pinterest picking quilts I was drawn to and they all had similar qualities - all the colored triangles going one way and solids going the other way. It made for a very easy repetitive piecing process, thats for sure. The triangles are all 6'' per long side. The white triangles are a mix of four different white-on-white or light grey-on-white prints and there are eight different colored prints in a mix of mint, pink, and grey. I hand quilted 1/4'' from the sides of all the white triangles. The back is a subtle grey-on-white print. The batting is 100% cotton. This is definitely the brightest/whitest quilt I've ever made and I love it.
I started in November 2016, cutting all 600+ triangles at home (using a rotary cutter and acrylic template). Then I got a good head start on piecing (by machine) at a weekend long retreat in November, did another chunk of piecing in December/January while on Christmas break, and then finished the piecing in late spring after a mad rush at work and after morning sickness subsided. It got loaded on the quilt frame in April and I hand quilted it row by row, finishing in July. Having a baby in August is good motivation to get. the. job. done! :)
Can I just say how much I love my Grace Company hand quilting frame? I put in all the extenders and was able to just barely fit the 103'' wide quilt. Its so nice to have such even tension all the time and never have to move a hoop around. And I'm super blessed to have a huge sewing room so there is a wall long enough to accommodate a frame thats 110'' end to end!
Its been on the bed for a week or two now and we love it. The best part is I know it'll only get better and softer with use and washing.
Yeah for my 2017 quilt!
In the works now is a paper pieced pillow top from the scraps to match. I hug a throw pillow at night and the current pillow cover is both a complete clash of colors (navy, red, and white - doesn't match this quilt at all) and its getting threadbare. A perfect excuse to make a new cover and use up some scraps. Pleasant hand piecing for these summer evenings...
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