January 10, 2012

Finally: My birthday quilt to Krista

Way back mid 2011, I found a free pattern using petal shaped, raw-edge appliquéed scraps.
Now, I cannot for the life of me find the orginal pattern, nor the homepage where I saw it first (remember to keep track, guys!) . I though it was from Fat Quarterly, but I simply cannot locate anywhere.
So, if you recognize it, please let me know and I will give credit to whom credit is rightfully due!
I really wanted to try it out, but did not have the scraps, nor the time!'
Then one day, my far-far-away friend Krista posted an absolutely lovely quilt she had made for herself on her blog. And a little time later I had to admit to myself, that one of UFO was never meant to be, which resulted in loads of abandoned fabric, just in the right size for the above mentioned patten.
Then Krista and I started up the Geese in a Ring Swap together (yes, we live in different parts of the world, but who cares? That is what the internet and email is for, right?!) and not long thereafter, she gave birth to the sweetest tiny boy, Jacob.
Krista is the mother of 3 small boys, and I think she is a wonderful person: 
Juggling hospitalization, babies, surgeries, a home, a husband, quilting, running.... I could continue. And all along she is keeps on being as sweet, caring and funny as when I joined my first virtual quilting bee back in 2009 and clicked with her.
SO! When I found out her birthday was coming up, I decided to make her a birthday quilt!
This is the end result (click for a larger picture):

The fabrics used are (among others): Tufted Tweets (Laurie Wisbrun), Modern Meadow (Joel Dewberry), some of Pat Bravo's designs and Parisville (Tula Pink) and a few Kona solids
Sashing: Kona Cotton Berry
The main fabric with the dots have been in my stash for ages.
The backing was made by the last of the dotted fabric, a tiny bit of Kona and then the remaining leaves scattered in a vine-inspired way, on a whim. I am actually not sure which side I like the most!
For the back, I free-motion quilted the laves onto the back, using the quilting to enhance the leaves' shape and connecting them with thread-branches. 

Note to self: next time, use stabilizer, it will be so much more easy! ;o)

 I quilted the entire quilt sandwich (I again used bamboo batting for maximum softness) with diagonal lines through the blocks to get discreet stability, and also around each block. Wow, that straight line quilting is fast!!
Finally, I bound it with dotted fabric, packed it together with the first 2 rounds' worth of geese blocks from all over the world and sshipped it off to Krista on 23rd December 2011.

Krista received the pack yesterday, and since it was a surprice I have not been able to blog about it before now !! Hehehe! Got you, sweet chica!!

2 comments:

Tracey said...

so pretty. Love the leaves on the back. Do you like the bamboo? Can you really feel a difference? I have wondered if there was a big difference and if you could tell.

Kritta22 said...

Oh My STINKING GOSH!!!! This quilt is beautiful and perfect and all things wonderful!!!

Seriously made this chick cry when I got. It's absolutely perfect! I can't believe the beautiful quilting and piecing and the colors! It's wonderfully warm and I've used it every night on the couch with my boys since I got it.

Thank you soooooooo much for such a wonderful present. I will love and cherish it forever!