Thursday, January 1, 2009

Garden Trellis quilt

And now, a full reveal! Here's the Christmas gift for my parents: a Garden Trellis quilt from a fat quarter pack from here, following the pattern in this book.

Because I used a fat quarter pack and cut the strips myself, the quilt as a less scrappy look than it would if I had used a jelly roll, but I like how it turned out. And, supposedly, my parents do, too! This quilt was a little tricky because it has so many seams. I quilted it in a zigzag pattern and free-motion quilted curlicues in the blue border. I free-motion quilted the straight lines, too, only a lot of them didn't come out as straight as I'd hoped. A problem for sure, but I didn't have to turn this quilt a million times on my machine (and it's a generous lap-sized quilt, so it was a pain to manage), so I guess I give up straight lines for some quilting ease.

This was my first project in which I used a scrappy binding, and I really like how it turned out! I don't think it would be as great if I didn't have that wide blue border. Still, it's really cute, and something I think I will be doing more often.

Here's another post-wash crumply photo. I love the backing fabric, a very sophisticated cream and yellow large floral print. I can't remember who the designer is--it's something the owner of my LQS helped me pick out. I think it's perfect. I just love the surprise of a light backing on a quilt.

This was the biggest gift I gave (both in size and time requirements to prepare), and also my favorite gift that I gave. What about you? What did you make and give?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the quilt and I'm sure your parents do to! My handmade gifts this season included a pieced tote bag and then some jewelry sets. Maybe next year I'll have something quilted to show off. My mom and I actually started a Buggy Barn project today that will be a good candidate for my sister-in-law. It is the Barn Chicks project. We're going to make it into a wallhanging with four chickens in each. (www.buggybarnquilts.com)

Andrea said...

Very beautiful! I love the colors.
A~