"Love" prevails- finished Sherbet Pips quilt

In the matter of love vs. hate....love. Definitely, love.
I have coveted the Sherbet Pips line since I first laid eyes on it- all my favorite colors, and such cute, lovable characters! I was so happy when I got my hands on a couple layer cakes! But then came the debate of how to put it all together.
I loved some of the snowball designs advertised by Moda for this line, but I decided to mix it up and make it my own by alternating it with 9 patches. By keeping the corners of the snowballs and 9 patch squares all the same color, I really like the pattern it creates! I used Kona Medium Grey as my solid, and needed just one layer cake to make the 42 blocks you see here- perfect lap quilt finishing up at 55" by 65".

The back- my goal was to keep it simple! I normally spend a lot of time doing a pieced back (like here, here and here), but decided that I needed a break after the hockey quilt :-) Also, there is no coordinating yardage of Pips yet available to tempt me. The answer was clear- minky! My friend Kathy has made a couple quilts with minky that I adore, so I wanted to give it a try. I admit I was almost scared off after reading this post, but I am so glad I went with it. It is SO soft and cuddly- perfect for this winter-themed quilt! It came in 59" wide so I didn't even have to piece it, just spray basted it and away I went. No trouble at all in quilting...the only issue came in trying to do some UN-sewing. Impossible to seam rip this stuff! I wasn't happy with the quilting design I had started, and wanted to take it out...anyways, after a bunch of frustration, I decided it wasn't worth the drama to stitch rip out and I just continued with it. Not perfect, but good enough!
Another thing I discovered with minky- hand quilting patterns are lost on this stuff, as it just swallows the stitches. My hand stitching was looking terrible on the back as some stitches would be hidden in the "hairs", making it look uneven. My solution? I ended up removing what I had started, then continued hand stitching the quilt top and batting layers only! Problem solved, and ample machine quilting elsewhere to hold the thing together, so why not?? My quilt, my rules ;) I used 5 different coordinating shades of Perle 8 cotton thread to frame each of the snowballs.
I think my favorite detail is the faux piped binding. I LOVE how this turned out, it really made the quilt for me. I used some Amy Butler lotus dots, then added the red solid piping for extra punch. I used this awesome tutorial. The binding/piping is machine applied as opposed to hand stitched, so this was another new experience. Will definitely use this technique again.
Finished it up this weekend, and already have spent lots of time enjoying it... a great cuddle companion for a movie, it was a tablecloth for a princess tea party, the aqua minky side was a pool where we played dolphins, we used it to make human burritos like this one....
This little lovely is a birthday present for me, from me. Yes, it is true- I am aging on Wednesday. I know, I know, hard to believe, I am looking so youthful! Extravagant gifts encouraged ;)

I'll have a gift for you as well- check back for a giveaway with Fresh Squeezed Fabrics!