Gosh. It's been a while, eh? Sorry I've been a little M.I.A. lately.
It's Spring Breaks' fault. We headed down south to sunny, St. George (Utah) for some wonderful R & R that our family definitely needed.
But, I learned something about myself while on that trip. I learned that I actually don't do good with too much R & R. So the minute we got back home I got right back into finishing two quilts and starting about 5 more!
Speaking of which, I've got one that I'd love to share with you today. This project has been in the works for a few years so I am really happy to say she's finally finished!!! Yay!!! It was seriously touch and go there for a while :)
So this quilt has a story behind it.
It all started with a contest. Joanna (over at Fig Tree Quilts) was having a contest to see who could come up with the best name for one of her patterns. I won (or at least was one of the winners). I honestly can't remember which pattern it was that I helped to name though. Like I said ~ it was years ago. But as the prize, she sent me some patterns and a cute little Patisserie Honey Bun (remember those pre-cuts that Moda use to sell? Like a Jelly Roll - but smaller 1-1/2" strips). I bought some additional fabric to make this Sweet Sugar Swirls pattern and then the kit sat. And sat. And sat. I sold other kits that I had accumulated but I couldn't bear to see this one go. I loved the fabric and the pattern so much that I hung onto it for years. I worked on it once or twice but just couldn't seem to make any headway on it. Until the quilt retreat I went on a couple of months ago. I was able to get the top finished there and then quickly got it quilted. I got the binding finished last weekend and did a little photo shoot yesterday. Care to see some pics?
You can see the back (mostly a solid cream fabric with a few leftover printed strips pieced in the middle) and some of the quilting here. Can I just say that I LOVE the quilting on this?!? Linda Childs at Just Sew quilted it for me and did a fantastic job! Just perfect for my taste!
Oh. I also HAVE to mention that while I was working on this at the quilting retreat, I called it my "Don't Look Close" quilt. I was having a horrendous time getting my blocks to lay flat! I tried so hard to make sure that all my points matched up nicely but the centers of most of the blocks kept poufing up! I was stressing big-time but figured it had something to do with all those bias edged pieces. I was really quite embarrassed that that was happening so I told everyone that it was my "Don't Look Close" quilt. I asked around as to what I should do and a few people told me to just starch the heck out of my blocks. So I did. It seemed to work. And then the quilting helped to fix the rest. I honestly can't tell that there was any kind of poufing problem to begin with.
Isn't this a cute little gate? It's in my neighbors yard.
So welcoming, I think (especially with a quilt hanging over it!:)
Well, since it took me so long to finish this quilt, Patisserie fabric had come and gone. I couldn't find any more of it for the binding. But lucky for me, Avalon arrived in stores right before Spring Break so I picked up some of this cute little red polka dot print. It wasn't a perfect match to Patisserie's red but I thought it was a close second choice. As you might be able to tell from some of the pictures, there are a couple different reds in this quilt so I think it works.
I'm so glad Sweet Sugar Swirls is finally done. It's actually one of my favorites, I think. It's a beautiful design. And really wasn't that hard once I got going on it (just wish I could have done something to avoid that poufing problem though). But seriously, that Joanna ~ she sure is genius.
Happy quilting!
~ Amber
