Grey Cat Quilts

For the first time ever, I’m able to participate in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. It’s been a very good year for me to be finishing projects. For the Modern Quilt Category, I am submitting Embers:

Embers
75″ X 75″

I started piecing the blocks for this top just as Swoon fervor was quieting down, in August of 2013. I re-drafted the block, bringing the finished size to 16″, down from the 24″ called for by the pattern. I wanted more blocks, and more variety in fabric. I’d decided early on that the blocks would all have some combination of pink, yellow, and orange. I also knew that I’d use Kona Coal as my background fabric – it’s my go-to neutral, and I loved the way the colors glowed against it.

I pieced as I felt the urge, and had a completed quilt top by November of 2013.

The top languished from that point on. I’d been frustrated by attempts to do FMQ on my home machine, and didn’t feel any ambition to get past the mental block.

This year, however, I am following along with the 2015 Finish Along, and A Lovely Year of Finishes. Just the impetus I needed. In February, I made arrangements to use a friend’s mid-arm machine, and FINALLY quilted this up.

I decided to play with the quilting, and tried a meandering flame design.

The backing ended up a touch more scrappy than I planned – I’d ordered the same print in two colors. Upon receiving the yardage, I discovered that the red was actually in two separate cuts. Rather than try to match the pattern, I decided to piece in a panel of orange fabric.

The backing didn’t quilt up nicely – I ended up with a sizable pucker that I didn’t find until I’d finished quilting. I used a black batting, and the batting was very heavily textured. The texture resulted in a lot of friction, and the batting clung to the backing, even on the frame.

So, the quilt isn’t perfect, but I’m very happy with it. I learned a lot about my batting choices, and about quilting on a mid-arm. I gained a lot of confidence, and feel like I might be ready to tackle more complicated quilting.