One last finish for 2013

This quilt has been in the works for quite some time, coming together a few blocks here and there.  I was unsure whether or not I would be able to get everything finished in time to gift it to my sister for Christmas; but it all came together with only hours to spare. 

I'm not kidding when I say hours to spare...I finished the binding, tossed it in the washer, then the dryer, then out for a quick photoshoot before wrapping it up and delivering it.  Whew!

While the palette was something unusual for me, once it was done I was quite in love with it, minimal yet purposeful; a far cry from the usual scrappy and/or intense quilts that I have made in the past.






You can easily make one of these yourself.  I did not use a pattern, just grabbed some graph paper and figured out the plus block using  2 1/2" strips.  Each block is then sashed horizontally with a 2 1/2" strip of the background fabric and long 2 1/2" strips make up the vertical sashing.  The challenging part is keeping all of the rows properly off-center.  There are a few areas where it goes awry; so don't look too closely.




The haphazard and fractured quilting just seemed to be the solution when dealing with the plus blocks, since they created very strict vertical and horizontal lines.




I wish I had more details about the actual fabrics that I used; but alas I do not.  The fabric used in the pluses is from the Moda Bella collection.  The background is a sort of shot cotton that I picked up at my local quilt shop (Janie Lou), it is like a linen in it's hand and slubbiness; but has the unique visual properties that a shot cotton does.  This quilt when finished measured 60" x 80".

This is my last quilt finish for 2013 and actually while I was rolling out the layers, preparing to pin-baste the top, I actually said to myself "Holy Crap...when is the last time I actually did this?".  It turns out that the quilt I finished before this one was way back in September.  Bad Quilter!


Happy Monday!!