I’m ready to buy a carpal tunnel wrist glove thingie after all the tiny stitches I made while sewing on the binding, but I’m happy to report that I am now DONE with the first quilt in my challenge. Huzzah!
So I’m pretty psyched with how it came out. I love the colors, love the graphic quality of it, and love how freaking cozy the damn thing is! Denyse’s “recipe” calls for using high-loft polyester batting, which I had never used before. I’m a “Warm’n'Natural” 100% cotton batting girl all the way, because I love that it’s natural and also how it lends a vintage-type feel to the finished quilt (as opposed to a ’70s-’80s style feel those fluffy type of quilts with poly batting usually have). But as I keep stressing—this challenge is all about breaking me out of my comfort zone. So I used the polyester batting and ended up loving it! It’s warm and cozy—yet not at all puffy—and feels very light.
One of my cats, Kang, has been obsessed with the quilt the whole time I’ve been working on it. Every night my big ass was parked in front of the TV finishing the binding, he would plop himself onto my lap (and thus onto the quilt) and refuse to move. This is not normal behavior for him! Sure enough, as soon as I put the quilt on the bed to photograph, he immediately jumped up and claimed it. Look at him staring me down, daring me to move him!
I did kick him off though, so I could show you guys the backing fabric. I love those ugly-pretty colors like mustard and olive.
As I mentioned last time, the quilt blocks didn’t work out to be 10 1/2″ square the way they were supposed to. So instead of ending up with a 60″ square finished quilt, mine is around 56″ square. A pretty big difference, but since it’s just meant as a throw for our couch I’m not too concerned. Oh and believe me, I did you a favor by photographing it in my bedroom instead of on our couch. The living room is a freaking PIT right now.
I did the binding in chocolate brown Kona cotton, as planned, but decided to throw in a strip of some patterned fabric on one side just for the hell of it.
Of course I couldn’t consider this quilt finished until I put a label on it. My friend Wendy gave an impassioned and hilarious talk at one of our LA Modern Quilt Guild meetings all about the importance of labeling your quilts, for future generations to remember you by…or in case you lose your quilt on a plane. Didn’t want to get into too much detail though, so I just broke out some linen tape, rubber stamps and my fabric inks and tucked it into the binding as I stitched it on.
It feels pretty awesome to be done with the first quilt of ten before February 1. Now I just need to figure out which quilt I’ll be making next…so hard to decide! If you think you might want to try taking on the D.S. I Love You challenge too, I’ve created an image you can put in your blog’s sidebar. Just take a peek at mine and grab away! Be sure to leave me a comment here if you think you’re up for it. It would be fun to have some company!
So awesome! Will we be seeing it in person soon?
Definitely! I’ll bring it to the next meeting.
Love it! Nice work, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Thanks lady! Gonna be hard to choose!!
Awwwwww Jenny…I love the binding…sooo sweet!
Thanks dude!
wow, it’s amazing!!
Thanks Cheryl! Hope to see you at one of the LAMQG meetups, now that we’re meeting on the West Side!
Label-rific!
You know it!!
Jenny! It’s amazing. And my lord you did that fast! Congrats.
Thanks so much lady! So hard to decide which one to make next, but I’m vowing to make up my mind by the weekend…
Wow! Looks great. I’m with you on the ugly pretty colors. Particularly olive.
LOVE olive. Basically all shades of green are tops in my book but olive and chartreuse are pretty high up there!
HOT DAMN that is one good lookin’ quilt! And I totally have that orange 70s flower pattern sheet in my stash. Love seeing thrifted fabric find a great use. Congrats on finishing the first of many!
Thanks so much lady!!
me oh my! i got this book out of the library, thanks to you. i am in love with the kitty pattern, so i might make that easy one, keeping you in mind as you trollop through all of these. this first quilt is MAGNIFICENT. i wish there was a way to get to the end result without all that work!
please make the snaky quilt next! such amazing patterns.
xo
kittee
Oh girl I can toooooootally see a Kittee-made kitty in your future!! I think my next quilt will be “Ice Pops” as I’m not ready to tackle those snakey curves yet. Lemme work my way up to that one!
I really love this Jenny–it looked even better in person! I have had this book for years, and admired it, but I’ve never actually made anything out of it, because it seemed like so much effort is required to make stuff that LOOKS spontaneous and random! But you’ve inspired me. I think I’m going to roll up my sleeves and just dive in!
Thanks so much Terri! Can’t wait to see your finished bee quilt. If it’s half as good as the one you made from the “scraps” it’s going to be a mindblower!
I love love love it Jenny!
I have to catch up now! Are you going in order by the book?
Hey sweets! I’m not going in order at all. Just picking and choosing as my needs and time allow. I think “Ice Pops” will be next!