Anna Maria Horner, Hand Quilted, On a Whim Quilt

Welcome!  I'm pleased to have finished another hand quilted project.  This is a made with a pattern from Thimble Blossoms - one I have made before - called On A Whim.  

The rainbow of shades are from the Anna Maria Horner line, True Colors.  I had a large piece of fabric from her older Loulouthi line which I used for the borders.  The white background pieces are simply a white sheet from Ikea.

The backing is my favourite...VOILE!  So soft and cuddly.  The pieces are ones I have collected from Anna Maria Horner and from Tula Pink.  And, as I have mentioned, the quilt is completely hand quilted.  I used a rainbow of threads that I had, DMC perle cottons in size 8 and Aurifil cottons in size 12.  It's the squishiest and snuggliest.

QUILT STATS:

Pattern: On a Whim by Camille Roskelley for Thimble Blossoms

Fabrics: Anna Maria Horner, True Colours fat quarters and Loulouthi Framed in Sea Glass

Thread: machine pieced with Aurifil 50 wt, hand quilted with Aurifil 12 wt and DMC 8 wt.

Backing: various voiles from Anna Maria Horner Little Folks and Tula Pink lines

Batting: Warm & Natural

Dimensions: 68" by 82"

Completed March 2016

The Hand Quilted Swoon is Done!

Hooray!  It's pieced, it's quilted, it's bound!  But it's not washed and dried yet!  Usually that is the first thing I do when I complete a quilt.  But I wanted to take some pictures before it crinkles, as I have never made such a large piece with hand quilting, and with linen....I just don't quite know how different it will look!  But I will let you know.

Final dimensions (before shrinkage) are 107" by 90".  I have also resized these blocks, you might remember if you've been following me, to about 3/4 the size of the pattern.  So the original pattern has blocks that finish 24" and mine ended up at about 16.75" (please don't ask me to explain how that math works!  I have no memory how I arrived at the numbers I did, but it worked out.)

Piecing this one began in March 2013 and the top was finished in October.  I began hand quilting in January of 2014 and completed it at the end of June!  It works out to roughly about a block a week plus the borders and sashing in another 2 - 3 weeks. 

I love, love, love this backing I used which is a Denyse Schmidt print, from her line Greenfield Hill.  Unfortunately, as is usually the way things go, I did not have enough for a king size quilt and so I stuck in a panel down the middle of a Shelburne Falls floral print which I also love.  So yay!

What a joy to look at each of those stitches and feel a bit more connected to them, as each one constitutes a moment in my day, a precise movement of my own hands, a bit of my own concentration to make it just right, and so really... a piece of me!

(The size of the quilt is ample enough for our king size bed, but I've pictured it on a queen size bed as it was easier to take pictures in this room.)

And finally all the details to sum it up:

Pattern:  Swoon by Camille Roskelley for Thimble Blossoms (resized to my own dimensions)

Print Fabrics for Blocks: Various Denyse Schmidt lines, including Katy Jump Rope, Hope Valley, Shelburne Falls, and Flea Market Fancy.

Background Fabric for Blocks: Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Flax

Binding: Chicopee Simple Plaid in Black by Denyse Schmidt

Backing: Greenfield Hill Preservation Peony in Blueberry and Multi Floral from Shelburne Falls by Denyse Schmidt

Piecing Thread: Aurifil 50 wt. in 2325

Quilting Thread: Aurifil 12 wt. in various colours, DMC perle cotton

Batting: Warm & Natural

Dimensions: 107" by 90"

Swooning in Progress...

So I'm now hand quilting my king size Swoon!

Since the summery picture above (did we REALLY have grass out there?!  It's now under 3 feet of snow and ice) I added a border in October. (And bear with my iPhone pictures below...for some reason I can't seem to manage pulling out the real camera until the quilt is done).

Finally, after a monster basting job which used up all my pins and all my floor space...I am quilting! I am using heavier threads, such as DMC perle cottons in size 8, and Aurifil in size 12, in a variety of colours and I'm liking it so far!

The blocks have all finished at 16.25" square, a reduction from the pattern's original 24".  If you haven't come across this pattern yet, it's Swoon by Camille Roskelley and can be found here.

For more Swoon inspiration, be sure to look at the Flickr groups of fellow Swooners.  And again, join us, won't you?

Still Swooning

I'm just about finished my gigantic Swoon top! You may remember a few posts ago that I joined up with Fairy Face Designs and her Swoon 2013 Quilt-a-Long!

Here is what has resulted so far:

I've run out of Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Flax, AGAIN, so will have to postpone adding my final sashing strips around the outside of this beauty. And yes, I had to enlist at least 4 boys to hold up this quilt top for photographing!

On a Whim Quilt

One of the most popular quilts, it seems, out there in the online quilting world is "Swoon" designed by Camille Roskelley.  In January, here was a flickr group set up for folks to "quilt along" this lovely, lovely quilt.  I wanted to join but I made my version last fall.  Here it is:

The groups continued on, quilting along with some of Camille's new patterns, "On a Whim" and "Hopscotch".  Many are still doing "Swoon" and that is okay, it is a very easy going and relaxed group.

I decided I wanted to try "On a Whim". I had grabbed a few Civil War Reproduction fat quarters last fall after viewing some beautiful quilts made entirely from reproductions at a quilt show. And my LQS carries a lot of them, so the repeated exposure was doing its magic on me. "On a Whim" has a real antique feel to it, so I thought it might look nice in these fabrics. I just needed some more fat quarters to round out my collection for the quilt. I made a trip (on my own, wheeee!) to a friend's place a few hours from here in the spring and stopped at quilt shops along the way (squee!). Got some more fat quarters. Then I went to another quilt show and a local shop there was having a humongous sale. They had several selections of reproductions in yardage for super cheap. AND at the show itself, a wonderful little shop, Prairie Quilt Mercantile, was offering little plastic bags we could stuff with reproduction scraps for $5!!. And it wasn't just scraps! There were half meters and fat quarters and strips.... I made that little bag stretch and probably managed to get almost 2 meters in there! So that is where my little collection of civil war prints came from if you cared at all! And here is what I turned them into:

 The top.

After quilting.  I took this picture in the afternoon in the shade, so the colours aren't very true.  The one above it is most accurate.

So I stippled it. I know, I am *so* creative! But it is a big quilt, biggest I've ever free motioned! I do have a few wee puckers on the back. But I used a white sheet, so no one will look at it anyways right? I AM happy with how the top turned out. And I LOVE the texture allover stippling gives!

 And yesterday I finished binding! Love a stripy binding. This fabric was from Prairie Quilt Mercantile.

And now it lives on one of my couches.