Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A doll quilt...done.

I started this quilt early in the swap period. Just as well too because although it is only a small quilt, at about 20" square it has taken me a long time. A lot longer than I thought it would that is for sure.


But I am really happy with how it has turned out....and I hope my partner is too when it arrives on his or her doorstep.


It started with this design idea.
And tracing and resizing and drawing some templates


I paper pieced and trimmed the 'petals'.
And appliqued them down. I really wanted to piece them but I just was not confident in getting the petals to meet neatly in the middle and I really wanted them to.
The backing stumped me for awhile, I considered an AMH print but couldn't find any of the designs locally in the quilting weight and didn't think the voile would be strong enough. In the end I pieced a contrast back and actually really like the striking contrast to the print, and the front.
The quilting was one of the things that took me longer than expected. There are 16 petals in this quilt and 7 triangles in each petal. If you are better at maths than me you will know right away that that is 112 triangles that were quilted in one of 7 different coloured threads.
I broke 2 needles in the fist 6 petals quilting these. I usually use a chenille needle and No. 8 perle cotton when quilting. This one was done in proper hand quilting tread and with a betweens needle - apparently they don't bend as much as the chenille.



I also really love the way the quilting stitches show up on the back.

In the end I bound it with some voile - and only because I didn't think the quilt would face a lot of punishment and it was the best colour I had to do it. I'd never use it for a 'to be used' quilt. It beautiful and soft but just doesn't seem that strong.
The label was printed on fabric paper and included the flickr group logo.

Now it is labelled, packaged with some small extras and on the way to a new home.
Stats
Fabric:    Anna Maria Horner Voile (mostly Good Folks)
               Kona Ash
              Kona Coal
Binding: Anna Maris Horner Voile - Pastry Stripe -Blue

Size: 20"x20"

Construction: The triangles to form the petals and the backing was machine pieced as well as the front of the binding. Petals were hand appliqued with a needle turn method. Quilting was by hand.

Label: Printed on fabric and appliqued on. Image taken from the Flickr group button designed by Badskirt.

3 comments:

Rebecca Maples said...

I love seeing your whole process with the end results being such a beautiful quilt:) I'm really hoping that I'm your partner!!

Retrogirl said...

That's SO cute! What a great doll quilt. Your partner is so lucky.

jmb_craftypickle said...

I love your story along with this beautiful little quilt. I always like to hear why people make the design choices that they make. NICE JOB!