And Lo, There Was Gifting

(pt. 1)

Christmas has come and gone, and I was in a frenzy of crafting to prepare for it. My biggest gift was a twin-sized quilt for my niece Marja, who is 18 and headed off to college next fall. As I had previously made a quilt for her older sister (back in the hazier days of my skill level and fabric selection,) it seemed time to gift this fun-lovin’ gal with something funky.

I thought I had done my prep work well in advance, asking Marja’s mom (my sister) back in May what colors she might like for a quilt. My sister said she’d get back to me, and did, in September, after I had chosen the pattern, purchased the fabric, and cut the thing out. The September answer was “purple.” The reality was a mix of lovely aquas, greens and light blues; some Amy Butler Midwest Modern, some Flights of Fancy by Michael Miller and a lovely Kaffe Fasset polka dot.

The pattern, Eclipse, came from the Modern Quilt Workshop (Ringle and Kerr) although I tweaked it a bit, and shortened up the size of the squares. This change worked out great, giving me four cuts per length of fabric instead of three! If I have committed a serious design error by altering the fabric, I can’t really tell.

The circular piecing was pretty fun, and if I was careful, and pinned a lot, I found that I could do a pretty good job of it.

The quilting was pretty basic, but I really liked the outcome, my organic grid pattern played off the quilt pattern and lent an all-over quiltiness that pleased me. 

I had a bit of a struggle with the back: although I had purchased plenty of my current fave Dharma Trading’s cotton sateen, I ended up miscalculating my cuts! I hand dyed two hunks in ‘seafoam’ and ‘turquoise’ but ended up just a skosh short, necessitating a creative piecing job for the back. My oldest nephew, the Industrial Design major, quite liked my ultimate backing, what do you think?

I bound the quilt in the Michael Miller polka dot, having purchased an extra couple of yards from my fledgling LQS Creative Union Fabrics -- just the right touch, I thought! One of my favorite parts of this project was that I got the thing done sometime in November - far, far in advance of Christmas, and way before I decided that I would try to make all of my Christmas presents!