Tuesday 26 March 2013

Christmas Quilt Finished!

With no sewing machine for over 2 weeks of the month I didn't get much sewing done this month. But now I have a lovely working machine again I have been putting it to work!

I started with my Christmas quilt - my March challenge. I then turned to the Mario blocks. I have sewn all the little squares into rows, just now need to sew the rows together. Takes some doing all those little squares.

Anyway, back to the Christmas quilt. It feels like ages ago that I started it and many things have come and gone in between. But last summer I took part in the Freespirit Christmas in July Block-a-thon. I finished the quilt top ages ago and it sat on my design wall for quite some time whilst I created the quilt back. 

As with most quilts I ended up with a whole load of scraps left over. I can't bare to waste fabric so I decided to use as much of this as possible on the back. 


I started by sewing together lots of the little scraps! I got a bit fed up doing this though as there were many small scrappy triangles and odd shapes and it didn't make for very fast progress. Anyway having sewn some together I decided how the back was going to look. I took the idea from one of the blocks from the front, this block: 



and made a larger version. But just had to include a star too, as I just loved the star block and had some larger pieces of fabric left too. After several more evenings of piecing, the back was complete, yay!


Then to layer and baste it altogether.



Then to the quilting! This was a tricky one. I didn't know how to quilt it! No one had posted any completed quilts in the flickr group, so I had no inspiration except for the one made using the bloggers blocks. And that I think had been professionally quilted, so was way beyond me!

I wanted an all over design but not my basic stippling option. So I sought advice and decided on a large swirl pattern. It went ok, not perfect but I think I got better towards the end. But the size of this quilt made it really hard work getting it through my machine. Some of the seams at the points were very thick which made it hard to quilt.

I found some good quilting to take a close up picture of! :-) 



I did have a small issue towards the end. I ran out of top thread and I haven't found a supplier here for the sulky thread I was using! I only had a few square inches left to do, it was so annoying! I am wishing now that I had used a lighter thread that blended in more and perhaps a bit thinner too (sulky is quite a heavy thread). I think the quilting stands out a bit too much and distracts from the blocks. It's all a learning curve!

Anyway, here is the final result in all it's glory!




Quilt stats
Fabric : Moda Blitzen, Kona white and ruby
Size: 60" x 63" (not sure why it's not ended up square, I think it should have been!)
Started: July 2012
Finished: March 2013


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6 comments:

  1. The swirls look fantastic on your xmas quilt and add great texture!

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  2. It looks awesome! Great job on your backing, and great job on your quilting!

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  3. It turned out gorgeous! I cannot believe that you quilted that on your home sewing machine. You did an awesome job!!!! I also love the fabric collection you chose and the back turned out beautiful!

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  4. It's absolutely beautiful, and I love being able to see the quilting - it's very complimentary and doesn't take over the block designs. Love the backing almost as much!

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  5. Love this quilt! You did a beautiful job...the back is great too! You're inspiring me to piece the back for a quilt I'm making for my son :)

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  6. I love this ! Beautiful quilting too..don't be so hard on yourself, it's just lovely! Do you know if there will be a freespirit 2013 christmas quilt?

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