Pages

Thursday 10 September 2015

Made Up Initiative - My Finished Quilt

It has taken me over two years to make this quilt, and it is simply because I did not have a sufficient reason to finish it - other than I wanted it! - that would make it take precedence over any garment sewing I was doing, until Karen's Made Up Initiative came along and spurred me on to the finish!  


I originally started this quilt as a bit of a reaction to making a few new baby quilts for other people and I suddenly realised that I wanted a quilt too!  There was one that was particularly difficult to give away which is a very similar design (below).  I still love that quilt!  


When I ordered the fabric for it from The Village Haberdashery (in March 2013!!) Annie was running a free fat quarter week and I received two free fat quarters (the ones in the picture below) with my order.  As soon as I saw them I decided to use them as the base for my own quilt.


In that quilt I used Quilter's Linen in Grey as the background colour and liked it so much I decided to stick with it.  I have reordered a few times over the years and there is a slight colour change in the different batches but honestly a) it is more noticeable outside than inside b) I am not bothered by it c) by the time I've spilt food/hot chocolate/wine on it a few times it won't show!  The other fabrics in the quilt include an Art Gallery Fabrics design and a Cloud 9 collection called Grey Abbey.   I think they all coordinate really well together and I am really pleased with the colours - amazing really when two of the fabrics were not chosen by me!


For the backing I pieced together a few bits of fabric to fit.  The main piece is some fabric I won in a giveaway hosted by Handmade Jane (courtesy of Trixie Lixielast November!  Originally I said I would make cushions with the fabric as it was in my mind that I would need new sofa cushions to match the quilt that would be sat on it.  However when I was making the quilt top I made it a bit longer than it suited so I have two zig zags all pieced together ready to be cushions which left the lovely duck egg free to become my quilt back.  I used leftover strips for the binding which are randomly put together (note to self for any future quilting: make the binding 7cm wide not 6cm!).


I didn't use a pattern for this quilt (which would have been helpful to get the quantities right at the beginning and not keep topping up) but I did find a tutorial for making four half square triangles at once but sadly I can't find the one I used now - there are plenty out there though!  This involves cutting two squares of fabric, placing right sides together, sewing around the outside of the squares then cutting diagonally from corner to corner in both directions which results in 4 half square triangles which just need a bit of trimming and pressing.  Easy peasy!  I have plans to use this method again for my next quilt (seriously, I've started buying the fabric and everything!) but randomly placing the triangles. We'll see, I probably won't get round to it for another few years so I'll have changed my mind at least three times by then!


Right now, I am super happy with my new quilt and I know it probably would have lingered on for another few months had it not been for Karen's initiative.  As of this morning she had raised over £2500 for the National Literacy Trust which is an amazing achievement.  Thank you Karen for forcing me to finish my quilt and for raising money for such a worthy cause at the same time!


11 comments:

  1. Yay, well done for finishing! I love the colours of this quilt, it's so you. I started a quilt a few months ago as a present, I really need to get back to it befoer the baby is all grown up. The Made Up initiative is such a great idea too, fantastic that it's raised so much money!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am quite predictable with my colours aren't I?! I love this so much though. I do love a baby quilt, its such a nice present to give to someone, good luck finishing it!

      Delete
  2. Yay for finished quilts! I was just looking up inspirations for quilts today as I reused I've been holding onto a set of fabric and quilters linen for 4 years!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so pleased it's finished. I do have another set of fabric I bought five years ago to make a quilt but I'm ignoring that at the moment!

      Delete
  3. Wow, this is lovely. Well done on finishing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a gorgeous quilt! I love the colour combinations and I'm particularly delighted that the Hemingway fabric is part of it, how lovely. Funnily enough a few weeks ago I also decided to make a quilt just for me as I was bored of making them for everyone else. Remnants of the same Hemingway fabric will feature heavily - how coincidental is that?! I'll be interested to see how long it actually takes me…! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thank you! I am so pleased the Hemingway fabric goes with the rest of the fabrics as well as I thought it would. It feels like fate now! I'm really looking forward to seeing your quilt, it sounds lovely. It is hard prioritising something that doesn't HAVE to be made to be worn or to be given to someone, good luck!!

      Delete
  5. It's beautiful. Well done for finishing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the zig zags and the colour scheme. It is very lovely x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Almost feeling the urge to dig up my unfinished quilt and start working on it again. Hopefully, it will pass...............do love your quilt though!

    ReplyDelete