...N's quilt - Cog and Wheel

I took the fabric and the recently cut templates for this quilt to the first Sit and Sew Day for the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild I went to last year, in April.

A year later I have finally finished it! After I was inspired by this stack of fabric sitting on the table near this pattern and coming to the impossible to forget conclusion that this fabric and this pattern were a match too good to pass up I worked on the top almost exclusively at the sit and sew days over the next few months. I finished the top in about September but was stalled there for a little while as I tried to find the right green solid for the back. My Kona Color card said Bayou was what I needed but it was a discontinued colour by the time I started my search and I couldn't find enough.

In the end I have gone with a different shade altogether - Green Tea from the Spotlight Prima Homespun range - but N seems to like it. There are a couple of extra scraps from the front fabric in there too to bring it all up to size.

I chose to quilt it as described in the pattern - this was not my original plan but I think if a quilt designer goes to the trouble of suggesting a design there must be good reason for it. I know when I plan a quilt I almost always consider the quilting design at the same time as I plan the patchwork and fabric choices.

The one change I did make was to follow the marked line with my walking foot rather than hand quilt the design. Despite the need for some fairly heavy duty pushing and pulling through the rather small throat of my machine, and the related puckers on the front, I think this was the right choice for me.

I like to quilt my own quilts (like in the planning I think all the stages of making a quilt are equally important and I'd feel a little like I cheated if I got someone else to quilt my top for me - but I know and respect that is not the same for everyone) but sometimes my lack of machine space is a little annoying, especially as I usually choose to make twin or queen sized quilts. However, unless the machine fairy decides to come along, these are the parameters that I need to work within.