Ahhh...a finish

So satisfying!!!

Back in February I started a quilt for a friend of mine recovering from a stroke. Finishing piecing the top was my March ALYOF goal, and I did that, and even got it basted and started quilting before the month ended. I'm happy to say it's done and with its new owner!

Here's a photo before washing: I did 3 lines of straight quilting per yellow zigzag row, and then I did a zigzag-wide up and down squiggle in the batik rows. I used the leftover backing fabric as the binding. It was that or a pieced yellow solid binding, and I let my 5-year-old choose. :) 

Here's a close-up after washing. Definitely some crinkles, which help to hide the quilting imperfections. I'm enjoying imagining my friend snuggled up under this quilt with her husband or kids--my way of sending a long distance hug to her.

March ALYOF Goal: Complete!

As you might have seen in my last post, I completed my March ALYOF goal, and even did so at the end of a third day of cleaning/reorganizing my studio and office! 

My goal was to complete the top, which I did, but I was hoping to get some machine quilting done as well, as I'm eager to get this quilt to its recipient. I chose this for the backing:

(Those are hearts in case you can't tell--not typically my thing, but I want the recipient to feel wrapped in love, and the colors were perfect for my scrappy batiks!)

I basted the quilt on Friday afternoon:

What? You don't baste with straight pins? I usually don't either, but my basting space is in a high traffic area, I ran out of quilting safety pins, and we had weekend company coming an hour later, so some straight pins were better than nothing!

I've started the quilting, but no photos yet. Happy to have made progress and completed my goal for this month!

WIP Wednesday

Here's (one of) my current WIPs: a  chevron quilt in a warm and sunny palette. I'm making this quilt for a friend who suffered a stroke during a medical procedure (she's only 36!). She's on the road to recovery, but I figure a quilt would be a good gift as she continues to rehab. 

It took me a while to decide exactly what to do. I wanted it to be fast (ish) to make because I wanted to get it to her sooner than later. Ideally I wanted the quilt design to have some meaning. And, she's a warm color person, while I'm decidedly not. Choosing the colors and fabrics for this quilt was starting to become a stumbling block. But once I settled on the chevron pattern (more on that later), I raided my stash of red, orange, pink, purple and rust batiks and then bought yardage of four different yellow solids.
An evening of sewing with my sous-chef quilter friend Kathy, and we had HSTs for half the quilt top complete. I'm on my way with the second half as well. The batiks are randomly placed and I will still do some adjusting to spread the color out, as these were simply stuck to the wall to see how the overall look was coming. I'm considering trying a version where the yellows are mixed up as well, but at the moment I like the relative solid-ness of the yellow zigzags.

Here's where I am as of today:

I'm starting to like warm colors for quilting...especially the yellow! Pay no attention to the mess on the floor. It is NOT a reflection of what the rest of my studio looks like. Not at all.

Delicious batiks and buttery yellow squares, cut by my mom this past weekend (they say a quilt takes a village...). Ready to be stitched into more HSTs!

Back to the pattern. I wanted a design with a message, and the up and down of the chevron seemed to work well--the ongoing victories and frustrations of physical and occupational therapy. But I also wanted something to symbolize an overall positive ending. The design below is what I'm playing around with; I have yet to try it with actual fabric, so we'll see whether it works or not. What do you think?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.