Monday 13 July 2009

Apple Owl Quilt

Another recent fabric purchase were the half yard cuts of 4 prints of Timeless Treasures Apple fabric. I decided on a 9-patch baby quilt, since everyone seems to be blogging about 9-patches these days, thanks without doubt to AmandaJean :)

My proudest moment was when I selected and cut out all the fabric needed for this quilt except the backing. I felt like I had a quilt kit in my hand, zoom zoom, done!


Thanks to my enormous fabric purchases earlier this year, I have all kinds of solid fabrics in my stash and felt like I was in a fabric store, wandering around with the Apple fabrics and matching the solids to the prints.


The green leafy fabric will be the binding, and the grey-beige the sashing.

And while that plan stayed the same, I quickly decided from looking more and more at the fabric and how cute it is, that I wanted a big quilt with it. If I had made the baby quilt first, I wouldn't have had enough fabric left over...

So, I went back to cutting, and then started making 9 patches...

Making a big quilt had the advantage that I could strip piece more of the 9 patches! 3 strips per fabric pair gave me 8 9-patch blocks, and since I had 4 fabric pairs, that got me up to 32 blocks. I made 3 extra for a 5x7 block layout.


Originally, I had planned 1.5" inner sashing and 2.5" outer sashing, but with only 5x7 blocks, I needed a bit more width, so rather than using more blocks, I made all the sashing 2.5" wide.

Here are the 4 fabric pairs showcased:


I love the owls!



By cutting along the selvage, I managed to get strips long enough for the width of the quilt.


I pieced the outer sashing for the length of the quilts, and am in the process of adding a pieced border out of the left over pieces of apple/owl fabric I had from strip-piecing.


This is how far I've gotten in 3 days, gosh, it feels good to make progress like this! I have the top and bottom pieced strip ready, then there'll be another sashing border, I'll probably use the 2" strips I already cut, because I'm getting low on this particular fabric, and the it's time for binding. Oh, and a backing.

Does anyone else have a hard time picking out backing fabric???

I always try to match the backing to the front, though I see many of you don't, and it still looks great.

Also, I think of quilt backs purely as a necessity to hold the batting in, I look at the top, not at the back, so I don't want to use pretty fabric that I might want to use on a quilt top some day... very tricky!

Any tips and tricks how to overcome this backing-block? :)

7 comments:

Heather said...

I just like to use up scraps that I have for the backing, and sometime patch pieces together. I sometimes use the back of the quilt as the front and like the back to be just as pretty.

I think this quilt look beautiful. And I agree it's all AmandaJean's fault!! :)

Nichole said...

your 9 patches look great! i find that if i set out to make the backing complimentary to the front I enjoy it a lot more. kind of like making two quilts in one.

i think my mother-in-law vies it similarly to you though. just pick something to get to the quilting. she makes sure to buy the extra wide solids so she doesn't even have to sew anything together at all. another option. :)

Crispy said...

I usually pick a backing that won't shadow through to the front and also use the wide stuff so I don't have to piece it.

Your 9 patch is very lovely,

Crispy

Cristin said...

GORGEOUS 9patch top! I adore that fabric but have tried to restrain from buying it (so far.) I was getting ready to cut out a bunch of little squares, but now that I see there is a short cut with strips... dang, thats totally what I'll have to do! Great pics, and I LOVE your pieced outer sashing. As for the backing... I go by this basic rule of thumb: it should "go" with the front, not match. So if its not the same designer, or line of fabric, thats fine. As long as either the color or theme carries over from the front - anything goes! Good luck... let us know what you choose, k?

FabricWorm said...

Hi, it's not related to your post, I'm Cynthia from Fabricworm, and I just read your post at my giveaway, I'm worried about why you haven't gotten our fabric. Please e-mail me details: fabricworm@gmail.com

Jocelyn said...

I always labor over the backing. But Cristin is right, if it goes with the front, then it works. As a last choice I go with muslin. Your nine patches look really good.

Little Lady Patchwork said...

Hello again!

You are on a roll! I am in love with that apple fabric and your quilt top!

For backing fabric, I am on this mission to only use stuff in my stash for backing fabric. (I have so many large pieces, so I am piecing them all together).

Have a good weekend!