Urban Nine Patch – finished

I sat down, quilted, binded and put on the label. Oh and of course took pictures.Here it is in all it’s glory. This picture was taken before I washed the quilt. Yes nice crisp lines. Here is a close up, you can’t really see the quilting on the prints, except for the straight  lines in the large grey areas.  Yay for a walking foot and a machine that cuts the thread itself. I’m talking about my Juki.The back is made up of the leftover fabrics from the piecing. So once again, quilting is not obvious.You get the idea of what the quilting looks like.  Initially this quilt was meant for me. I had made the blue/grey quilt for Joel so this was going to be my, cuddle up quilt.  I was posting pictures along the way on FB and before I knew it, a good friend claimed it. It is her colors! She wants this quilt and is willing to exchange a piece of art for it.

I don’t sell my quilts. I have given baby quilts as gifts but this is a full size quilt and the time and effort put in are much more than a baby quilt. An exchange, now there is an idea, I said yes.

If this were a wall hanging, there would be no need to wash it. Since it will be used as a quilt should be – I washed it.  I don’t want the new owner to have any surprises if down the road she decides to wash it herself.Here it is washed.  What’s the difference you ask?The top is unwashed, the bottom, after washing. Now you can really see the difference.  I didn’t prewash the fabric, I used 100% cotton batting. Then threw it in the washing machine and dryer and this is the result.  The quilt shrunk a little but it is also much softer and cozier. You can see the quilting in action, how it makes everything much more three dimensional.A quilt isn’t really finished until there is a label. It’s the artist signature, name and date.This is why I still need the Babylock machine. It does basic embroidery, which is a nice easy way to make a label.

Next week I will show this off to my Quilt Guild and then it’s going across the country to Connecticut to my friend Lynne.  When I get the artwork from her, I’m sure I’ll post about that as well.