Posies, finished

In my last update, I had managed to piece the background fabrics and pin down the EPP flowers where I wanted them. From there it was "just" a matter of basting, quilting, and binding to end up with a beautiful finished quilt for Jasmine. I really like the combination of colors and prints. Many of the prints are actually from a package of precut hexagons I picked up at Joann's quite some time ago. (Long enough ago that I don't remember!) There are also a few bird and owl prints in there that are precious leftovers from other projects that I hope she enjoys discovering.

In addition to pinning the flowers in place, I also used some lightweight fusible interfacing. I cut out rectangles 2 x 3 inches or so and steamed them under each point and each 'v' along the edge between diamonds. Doing so helped keep everything in place a little bit better during quilting than I think pins alone would have. It kind of reminds me of the little photo squares you use for scrapbooking to stick pictures to the page. 

I quilted somewhat 'organic' horizontal lines. I say organic because I was neither measuring spacing nor parallel-ness along the way, though in the end they were all approximately spaced evenly about 4 inches apart. Because the edges of the flowers were still somewhat free to roam between quilting lines, each one was hand quilted around the perimeter with pearl cotton. I had an aqua left over from my Modern Medallion quilt that was just right.

The backing I used was actually a flat sheet from a set I had in Sacramento. When I sold the bed, the sheets went with it but I kept the unused flat sheets because I liked the patterns and figured they would be great for quilts. The curlicue medallions in soft neutrals on this particular fabric suit this one very well. Mom found me this great geometric fabric for binding. The bright peach and pink diamonds and hexagons are perfect. I used 2.5" strips, as is typical, and sewed the binding down by machine with a zig zag stitch. 

I participated in two Flickr-based quilting bees a couple of years ago, and this is the first quilt to be finished from those adventures. While it ended up being quite different than the original idea I had, I quite like it! Dare I say I'm 'tickled pink'? Thank you to the ladies from the Get Your Hex On bee who spent their time stitching little hexagons into diamonds for me. All told, the quilt is 70" x 65".

It's gone from an intended Christmas gift to a birthday gift back to a Christmas gift in terms of timing the finish, but now it's done and gifted and my niece has a new, girly, bright blanket for her bed (modeled here in my parents' guest room, all pictures courtesy of Dave photographer extraordinare).