Quilt #4

Quilt #4 is done. Jesus, it went faster than that last behemoth of 1000 pieces. This would have been a better a third project, but I'm a cocky little garment sewer and have no time to worry about silly little things like difficulty ratings. I've sewn silk, bitch!

The pattern is Hanami from quilty, Winter 2012. I wanted something that would feature the large patters and the pattern also worked perfectly with the amount of fabric I bought. The patterned fabric is Lizzy House Constellations and the solids are Kona cotton. Comparing these fabrics to the fabrics from the last quilt (which were all random Joann tone-on-tone prints), the quality is totally noticeable. Feels better, doesn't burn, you know, quality-ness.

I bought the fabric on a whim from Grey's back when I permanently lived in Bostontown, but have since realized that it isn't my style. I decided once I pieced the front that this is going to a children's charity so I quilted the living crap out of this puppy for longevity. This was the first time quilting with my walking foot (and after starching it, starch smells gooood) and it was amazing. It went so so so smoothly. Go buy a walking foot if you don't have one, they are worth their wait in gold and on top of that, just plain fun to watch! Next time I want to try out basting spray as well, but I'm not terribly comfortable adding chemicals to the world so it would have to be amazing.

The binding is also machine sewn on but from the control the walking foot gives, you can't see the stitches. Also, my corners are damn sharp! I am already feeling my preferences for various quilting methods and I like 2.25" binding whereas this is 2.5". I used bias binding because its stronger and I want it to last, but I also really wanted to try out the method for making continuous bias binding. It was a blast! And pretty easy, although I drew the cutting lines on wrong at first, whoopsie. Easily fixed!

All corners met pretty well and I had to press seams open because of all that white fabric. Pressing open made my garment sewing heart happy. You might notice the fabric framing the light blue, constellation fabric is uneven. I didn't have enough fabric to make those blocks as large as they were supposed to be and I didn't want to make them smaller because the fabric is so doggone-it-stinking cute, so I just adjusted the border to compensate.

I hope someone will enjoy this!