Artful Allie’s Sewing Adventures

It’s amazing what satisfaction I have with finishing a quilt top. I love watching all the blocks come together into something bigger, better, and wonderful. I seem to forget that the quilt top is a small (still very important) part of the quilt sandwich.

Here’s where my recently left behind Denyse Schmidt project comes in. It’s my second project from her Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, called Hop, Skip, and Jump. I fell in love with the simplicity of the pattern, but the complex way the somewhat curved pieces fit together. I chose to make the quilt in brown patterns and muslin. The fabrics were a blast to choose, and I spent well over an hour at the fabric store.

I’m only about 1/2 way machine quilting it. I chose to outline each brown patch. I didn’t think it would be so difficult to quilt, but it’s become very frustrating. I just don’t have enough experience. That was part of my reasoning for starting the disappearing nine-patch quilt. The pattern was fun, the quilt was much smaller, and I could get some practice machine quilting. Now that the diversion-quilt is finished, I suppose I should try tackling the brown quilt.

But I started this quilt over winter break, about the beginning of January. I chose these warm brown tones. Now that it’s almost March and I’m ready for spring, I’m not so into these browns. I guess I’m just having a hard time picking up where I left off.

I recently finished my Disappearing Nine Patch quilt top (using this tutorial, compliments of sew,mama,sew! quilting month: http://quiltsatcs.blogspot.com/2007/04/disappearing-9-patch-tutorial.html), and have been waiting for an opportunity to get starting quilting all the layers together. Luckily, we are getting a steady flow of snow flurries this afternoon. My plan: hot tea and quilting!

The fabrics were purchased from hancock fabrics, and they came together as a bundle of fat quarters. I had enough fabric to make 20 nine-patch blocks. After they were all finished, I started slicing and dicing! I think the quilt has come together nicely. I’m using a forest green fabric for the backing, with a strip of the patterned fabrics I used on the front. The quilt top turned out quite small, only about 36″ by 44″. All that slicing and resewing really shrunk the blocks!