Origins Quilt

I've noticed a couple of things as I'm teaching myself to hand quilt.  Like the appearance of my stitches.  In general, I am pleased as they are neat and even.  But when I look at pictures of antique quilts, the stitches appear (1) tinier and (2) smaller, hahaha!  Like just a dot!  The way my stitches look with this thinner hand quilting thread better suits perle cotton, I think, as the stitches look a little big to me (see the close up).

A question: how many stitches per inch do people generally get hand quilting?  Mine are about 9 stitches per inch in this quilt.  Which calculates out to..... about 27, 216 stitches!  (378 squares, 8 inches of stitching per square and 9 stitches per inch?  Correct me if I am wrong!)

Quilt Stats:

Print Fabrics: Origins by Basic Grey for Moda

Solid Fabric: Kona cotton solid in Ivory (?)

Thread: Gutermann Hand Quilting thread 100% cotton in Ivory

Batting: Warm & Natural

Backing: cut from a 100% cotton Ikea duvet cover

Dimensions: 50" by 58"

S'more Love Camper Quilt

Before one leaves on another an epic camping trip... one needs a new camper quilt for one's RV.  Naturally.

This simple, easy to piece, easy to quilt and "perfect to showcase a fun fabric" pattern, is what I made this year for our camper quilt.  It is called Easy Bricks, by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter, and can by found on the Moda Bake Shop site.

I used a layer cake of S'more Love by Cosmo Cricket for Moda.  I took out a lot of the lighter prints which ended up in this baby quilt:

I replaced the lighter S'more Love prints with darker prints that coordinated from my collection.  (As Amy did in the pattern, using 2 layer cakes and reserving the light prints for a different project.)

I pieced it and quilted it up on my machine using a white Aurifil 50 wt. and it is ready to go for our annual September RV adventure!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Easy Bricks by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter (found at Moda Bake Shop)

Print Fabrics: S'more Love, Cosmo Cricket for Moda (used for top, backing and binding) and other various prints

Background fabric: Kona cotton solid (in Oyster, I think?)

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt, white

Batting: Warm & Natural

Dimensions: 60" by 81"

Completed August 2014

The Lush Uptown Quilt

The first thing one realizes after getting sucked into the siren song of this super cool, modern and unique fabric line is how difficult it is to find a good quilt pattern to do it justice!

I think I found it in Thimbleblossoms' Red Velvet pattern.  The perfect pattern to let you show off those big beautiful deer and trees and chrysanthemums....but not too modern where you are just looking at giant squares, or squares in a square.  

I did leave out several prints (some smaller scale and the paint by number birds), as I want those large scale deer and the fall foliage to shine.  And I ended up going with a sampler bundle of shot cottons for the star points instead of what I originally imagined incorporating some of the smaller scale prints for.  I think the colours and the added depth of the shot cottons is spot on for this quilt.

I pieced it with my usual Aurifil 50 wt in 2325, and I also machine quilted it with the same threads, but used a light grey on the top thread and 2325 in the bobbin.

Oh, and you may have noticed I orientated the deer to be looking at you when the quilt is what you might consider horizontal, rather than vertical.  That's because it is going to hang on the back of my couch :).

Thanks for coming by to look!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Red Velvet by Thimbleblossoms

Dimensions: 66" by 59"

Main fabric: Lush Uptown by Moda

Backing: Turquoise sheet from Ikea

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread:  Aurifil 50 wt

Completed August 4, 2014