Replay Finish

Oh, a finish feels so good! I was very close to finishing this quilt when I posted on Wednesday. I stayed up extra late that night to complete the binding. Now it's been photographed, washed and dried, and photographed again along with it's "fraternal twin." (Just yesterday, I said that I don't often repeat a quilt, and now look what I did.)

Gray day. Sigh. Borrowing the neighbor's fence out of the breeze.

It was fun making this pattern again in a different way. You can read about the first quilt and the progress on this one here, here, here, and here. And I did stick with my plans: making it a little longer and wider so that I could make a symmetrical zigzag edge, and stepping up a bit from just meandering in my quilting. 

For the quilting, I did the same squiggles in the white parts as I did on the first quilt (as suggested in the pattern) and I did some free form flowers on the colorful fabrics based loosely on the suggested quilting design. I had read on someone's blog recently (Sorry, I can't remember who) that when you get into a tight space when quilting, just echo your way out of it. I think my quilting has more echos in it than actual flowers, but that's fine. I meant this as practice, and it was the perfect quilt for it because the fabrics are so busy that the lines don't really show up anyway, especially after washing. I did find that in paying attention to where I was going with the flowers, I didn't pay as much attention to my speed and tended to end up with more uneven and bigger stitches, but again, it's practice. 

If you look closely and enlarge, you can see some of the flowers and echos.

It was fun to try something new for me with the binding. I have never done inside angles--or outside angles bigger than 90 degrees. Looking back through my photos, I see that I've done scallops twice in the past, but other than those, all my bindings have been on straight edges.). I like the effect, but not quite as much as I thought I would. I think I would have liked it more if the scale was smaller, but that would have required smaller triangles (and more inside angles, yikes), and no, I'm not going there. 

I used a new batting (for me) with this quilt: Hobbs 80/20. It does give a different feel to the quilt. (The other quilt has Quilter's Dream White Cotton Select). It has a nice soft drape, and feels a little more spongy than the other quilt. The quilt was just over 50 by 52.75 inches before quilting. It didn't really change after quilting. After machine washing on gentle/cold and machine drying on low, it was 47.5 by 50.5 inches, roughly 5% shrinkage in each direction, which is at the upper end of what the package predicts. I really like using 100% cotton materials, but I think I would use this batting again, especially if I'm working on a quilt that has to fit a particular size bed. (The other quilt had 8% shrinkage by comparison.)

As usual, I pieced this quilt on my Singer Featherweight and FMQ'd it on my Singer 115 treadle. The quilting thread is Superior King Tut Cotton in Papyrus. 

Here's the back:

I used nearly every last scrap of the 1/2 yard cuts I had for the two quilts.

And another close up to show some of the quilting:

And a different view, courtesy of our backyard neighbor's fence: 

And one more picture of the quilts together: 

I took this picture this morning--still gray, and even flurries in the air. Enlarge to get a better sense of the colors.

To recap these quilts, they are from a pattern by Christina Cameli called Gently Down the Stream that I found in Quilter's Newletter Fat Quarter Quilts from fall 2014. The first quilt is like the pattern. The second is more scrappy, and with the zigzag edges. I like both versions of the fabric placements. (You have to look closely to see the difference.) I'm sure I'll make this quilt again. I wonder which version I'll pick--the more controlled diamond-y one or the more scrappy one. We shall see. Someday. (Which version of fabric placement do you like better?) 

I don't really think I named the first one, but I thought of the second as Replay while I was working on it. Now I think of them together as The Fraternal Twins. They'll be joining each other at my favorite quilt-gathering organization to give comfort to others in need of a quilt hug. 

I'm linking up today with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Simply Pieced for TGIFF, and Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for Free Motion Mavericks. Have a great weekend, everyone!