It fills me with happiness and pride to look at this final quilt in my series of quilts for the children. What you see here, is Alistair's quilt. I so enjoyed the final few evenings of stitching down the binding on this quilt. I do love the colour and the contrast it forms to the plain backing.
Every time I make a new quilt, I want to do something that I have not done before. For Alistair's quilt, this meant curves. Sewing curves as such is not something new to me because I have some experience making clothes but so far, all my curves had straight lines. I used a drunkard paths acrylic template that has been gathering dust on my shelves since 2011 or thereabouts. The templates are quite big, resulting in a 7 inch block. Each of these blocks is combined with three others to form a circle. It was a breeze to sew and quite enjoyable, too. The only challenge was to get the seams pressed down consistently in the correct direction to avoid bulk in the final assembly. I am eternally grateful to Amanda Jean of Crazy Mum Quilts for her detailed and illustrated guidance about this challenge. If you scroll down on this post, you can find a pressing layout with neat little arrows. I still managed to make the odd "mistake" but on the whole, no bulky seams were created in the process.
If this quilt was for myself, I would make something like this but it isn't and I tried to make something that reflects Alistair's essence. I am not sure if I completely succeeded, he wasn't too keen on choosing fabrics from my boxes and he is the most difficult child of mine to read. I opted for simpler prints than usual but no less colourful. No florals for this boy, of that I was sure.
The backing is simple, a blue chambray that has been calling out to me to be used. It was meant to be a shirt dress but I just didn't have the energy to make one this summer. It is quite a fine fabric and a bit fiddly to work with. I chose to sandwich the quilt on my dining table to give my poor old body a break from kneeling on our hardwood floor. I started in the middle and worked my way out. There was quite some puckering and I had to go through the process again from the backing side. I have since sandwiched my hexagon quilt and I can say with confidence that the issues were with the soft and fine fabric, not my skills.
I chose not to hand quilt this quilt. I regret this a little it because it is my favourite part of making a quilt. My right arm needed a rest from hand sewing an entire hexagon quilt. Alas, Alistair won't know the difference and if he does, he won't care. I quilted in the ditch, thus duplicating the circle pattern with thread on the plain backing.
The binding is a mellow yellow, not quite mustardy, which I really really love. I also love this final step of making a quilt, attaching the binding. I am always a bit sad when I finish a quilt.
What do you think? It is very cheerful and perfect for Alistair. I want to give it to him for his birthday in December but I am not sure if I can wait that long. He as been waiting for so long, last of four quilts!
I now want to make a quilt with curves for myself. I wonder if that drunkard path templates comes I different sizes? I also recently saw this quilt and now really really want it. Chances that someone makes it for me are slim and I might just have to crack-on with it myself.
Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. Have a lovely week xx
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