Some time ago I gave up trying to think of clever names for my quilts and just started numbering them, so this finish doesn't have a proper name; it is just #4.22, which is to say the fourth quilt I pieced in 2022. At least the numbering lets me place it easily but if anyone wants to suggest a title, do feel free.
You will see that this is not a top that had to languish for long before it was quilted (unlike the one in the previous post). I used to work steadily through in a chronological order, but now I am mixing the older quilts and more recent ones. Some tops I am just keener to see finished than others.
This is the second in what turned out to be a run of four quilts playing around with quarter-circles. The spikes were an addition to stop me getting bored with the piecing and represent the "why do something nice and easy if you can make it fiddly and complicated?" school of quilting. At least I felt quite Christmassy as I was making it, both because of the colours and because the spiky circle-shapes reminded me a bit of baubles. And also because it was actually Christmas!
There's a lovely mix of patterns in these shirts, including the Indonesian-style one, which adds to the festive feeling for me, a slightly subdued Hawaiian one, with blue and red flowers, and that red tartan, which I had pretty much concluded I was never going to use. Just goes to show every shirt has its home, in the end. I often fall out of love with something as I work on it, but that never happened with this top: I liked it then and I like it now.
I quilted the horizontal bars with straight lines and the photo below shows how I approached the baubles.
The backing is one big piece. This is unusual for me but I found a few good duvet covers second-hand recently and there are so many seams in the top that it felt like a good idea not to add more on the back. Binding is from stash. I think it is a Charley Harper fabric from years ago. That's how the bindings go now - it's mostly a question of what's still in the boxes. Not much left now, then I'll be making binding from shirts, I guess.
This was started right at the end of last year, round about 22nd or 23rd of December. and piecing was finished on 15th February this year. I have lost track of when I started quilting - some time early summer - but it was finished on 5th September.
The wadding is organic cotton, the thread was from stash. Next time I start a quilt I will be buying thread as I am almost out, but it's been years since I've had to do that, so it's probably about time.
It's not the biggest quilt ever- about 60" wide by 70"long, but it's big enough to wrap up in, which is what matters most.
