My stepsister, the youngest of the four of us, got married this past summer. It was a gorgeous affair, and my two older kids and I were in the wedding party. Six months later (ahem, I know, I suck), I have finally finished and sent off a wedding gift. But inspiration was swirling as soon as I saw her unexpectedly gorgeous flowers.
I admit to being a little skeptical of the purple-and-green color scheme she had chosen, but man did it turn out beautifully. The purples were a really gorgeous plum color, and the greens were light and springy. Throw in some silver (gray) accents and wedding whites, and you’ve got yourself a quilt.
I’m really happy with how these colors turned out, and I have some crowdsourcing to thank. I brought the fabrics to Sewing Summit (and added some while I was there), and had plenty of awesome people on hand to help me edit down the piles so they all played nicely together. I brought the completed blocks to a Boston Modern Quilt Guild meeting and had easily half a dozen people moving them here and there so the layout worked.
I had the back finished a few weeks ago, but saved the basting for last weekend’s BMQG meeting. Why? Because our meeting was in a gym with lots of open floor space! So much nicer than having to disassemble my dining room and yell at the dog to stay off the fabric. In case you’re wondering, that beautiful purple solid on the back is Kona Berry. Perfect fit for this quilt.
I didn’t want to quilt it too densely, because I wanted it to stay nice and soft. So I just did a really big, open, loopy meander all over. Not only did it turn out as I had hoped, but the whole thing (measuring about 65×75″) was done in a single sitting at my sewing machine. Yay for fast!
I considered a deep plum for the binding, but ultimately chose the subtler gray, since there was already plenty of purple on the back. And really, are Flea Market Fancy seeds ever a bad choice? Nope. Never. As a funny aside, I (again) crowdsourced the binding choice, totally forgetting that my sister is on Instagram. Thankfully, she “liked” the picture and commented that it was “one of her favorites.” I had to laugh, since I had just returned from the post office, shipping the very same quilt to her in Chicago. Hope she wasn’t just being nice!
And hey! It’s my first finish of the year, a goal accomplished from my list of January priorities, AND it counts towards the BMQG WIP challenge! A triple win for me!
P.S. You’ll forgive me if some of the quilt photos are a touch on the blurry side. I was testing out a new photographer. For being five years old, I’d say he did a pretty good job!
