I needed a quickie.
So, when I had an unexpected afternoon off work recently, I neglected to pick up the kids from daycare or do my "to-do" list (it never gets any shorter, anyhow). Instead I spent 3 uninterrupted hours cutting up and sewing together my AMH Little Folks that I bought, in full, May of last year! A very simple strip quilt, completely inspired by the ones by Red Pepper Quilts. I made sure I did it with the rules of:
1. no thinking and
2. no pulling apart seams, no matter what.
Just pulled a fabric from the pile, cut a strip of whatever width, sew it on, etc until it was long enough. One strip was even sewed on with the back facing outwards! Whatever. Left it like that. And I didn't die or anything!
For the backing, I used a sheet I bought on clearance from IKEA. Easy peasy! It is a charcoal color and has a sheen to it that I just LOVE. I normally go for a fancy pieced back, but really like how this simple solid accents my quilting.
I did some simple line machine quilting, using grey on the back and colors that coordinated with the fabric on top. I popped on the binding (by machine) and hand stitched it here and there with Perle 8 thread in contrasting colors until I felt it was "done." Love the randomness, and how the hand stitching pops against the solid back.
I love it. It was stress free, simple, and as far as I am concerned, looks fantastic. Been so overwhelmed with all that is life lately, this was a much needed escape.I was feeling guilty about my unfinished vintage sheet quilt, and also that I hadn't started the promised birthday quilt for The Middle Child (her birthday is this weekend) but I will get to those, eventually. Had to take time to remember that quilting is supposed to be FUN, right??
Bring on the next project!
24 comments:
Oh I think it turned out fabulously (:
This is gorgeous. I love free-form quilts. They have a life and expression of their own. Very well done.
Nicely done. I especially like the back.
It looks beautiful! I love quick projects that go together easily!
I love it! Three hours?? Awesome!
Great idea and a finished project, so a real mood lifter........looks just fine too!
I love it! I think something simple like this is perfect for those fabrics. And I like the "random" effect of not pre-planning on this.
Fantastic!!! I love it, Kristie, I can totally relate to the mojo troubles, I've been suffering that myself the last couple of days, but I hope this finish brings it back a bit - it's just lovely!!
Your little quickie is better than my big projects.... It is so nice, thanks for sharing.
Hi Kristie! First of all, it looks amazing and so snuggly. I love seeing what you did with this fabric! Second, I can totally relate, sometimes I feel like I'm sewing so much for everyone else (or like I don't have time to sew. Or like I'm ignoring other important household things to sew) that it feels a little less fun. It is SO important to sew for yourself, and I'm glad you ended up with something so wonderful!
Always feels good to something easy and fun...especially when you get a great quilt out of it!
Perfection! Your hand quilting is joyful. This looks like ther perfect summertime quilt!
Way to love your fabric and get your quilt on! It is totally great!
Sometimes a quickie is juuuuust what the doctor ordered if you know what I mean. And I think you do.
Oh it's beautiful! The fabric choices, the backing and random handstitching.. All so perfect! I just might have to follow your footsteps and forge ahead on my next quilt without over-thinking it, which is what's totally holding me back right now. And I'm so pleased you 'didn't die or anything' after sewing the one piece on backwards. Gives me hope that I'll survive as well!
I love your quilt!! It made me laugh when you said one of the pieces got sewn in with the back facing out... I had the same thing happen in my little folks quilt (a little piece on the back) but the real kicker? I didn't even realize it until after I'd been using the quilt regularly for MONTHS! lol... and it was one of the pastry stripes so it was pretty obvious too! lol.
I totally get what you are saying. Sometimes you need a project that can be started, worked on and completed relatively quickly just to snap you back into the gig! Love this quilt!
I love strip quilts -- you are right they are fast and fun! And 3 uninterrupted sewing hours?!?! Wow. Good thing you treated yourself!
Great minds, no doubt! It looks like we have almost a completely different set of fabrics. If you want to do a scrap swap, let me know :)
I totally agree. It turned out absolutely beautifully.
(Love the hand stitching -it looks seriously fabulous!)
Quilting is supposed to be guilt free..dont worry about all that other stuff that's tapping you on the shoulder...
love this and yay for a quick project (although a quick project for me would probably be a napkin and not a beautiful quilt!) :)
this is beautiful. i love the way you combined the hand and machine quilting. i was just getting cutting on a strip quilt like this
Love your "no pulling apart seams no matter what" rule. I'm going to try to adopt that more too. Love the quilt and your blog. Thanks for sharing your work, and process.
I just love the binding on this quilt....it just finishes it.
Btw... I'm blog stalking you cause I'm new. Hi again!
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