Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Whoopee! This is my first time participating in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Thanks so much, Amy, for organizing all of this quilty-magnificence! And welcome, festival-goers, to my personal quilt journal.

I mostly make quilt tops with the intention quilting them later because I have space for basting (and I have a behemoth quilting frame waiting to be set up after a final move). So, I don't have a ton of finishes to choose from, but I do have this small quilt that I made last July.

52x65

The pattern is Welcome Spring by Cherri House for Moda Bake Shop using a jelly roll of Sanae's Oz line (check that link action!). I love the asymmetry of the quilt and it comes together really quickly. So, I would really recommend this pattern for a new quilter who likes modern-style quilting.

Backing

I believe I used every last jelly roll strip in this project! I modified the pattern by making it a little longer (I think this pattern calls for 17 strips and I used 21). I made a pieced back and used the gingham-type strips to make a scrappy binding. 

I tend to do straight-of-grain bindings, more out of habit than anything else.
I believe that bias bindings are supposed to be more durable.

We've been moving around a lot and at the time I made this, I only had a card table to sew on and no design wall (I currently use the back of a tablecloth!), so I just taped the strips on the wall and moved them around till I liked the layout. I found it very helpful to number my strips since I was going for a planned layout.

This was my first attempt at spray basting and I really liked it. I hate, hate, hate pinning quilts (maybe one of the reasons for so few finishes?!), so spray basting was a great option for this project.

I finished it off with some straight line machine quilting, as Cherri suggests in her instructions. And this is the first binding that I really feel good about. I've had some disastrous ones in the past, but I remember feeling proud of this binding.

Finishing a quilt is such a great feeling! I love playing with fabric (and buying it, too!) and watching the quilt take shape along the way. But seeing a finished quilt come out of the dryer, all crinkly and soft is the best!

Thanks for stopping by!