Christmas Finishes

I've been sewing away trying to get Christmas gifts finished up!  This year I'm giving three quilts: one for my grandma, one for my other grandma and grandpa, and one for my aunt.

Back in January or February, when I needed to take a break from studying, I worked on a batik quilt that used the Garden Trellis pattern from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott.  At the time, I was really into batik fabrics, right now my interest is waning...  Anyhow, the Asian Legacy roll-up seemed like a great choice - I loved the iris pattern in blue and purple.  The quilt ended up looking more brown than anything though.  Sigh.  So it was named "The Ugly Quilt" and it sat folded up in a drawer for about 6 months before I decided it was time to just get it done and get it out the door.  But I think that my grandparents will really like it, so it all worked out in the end!

Completed top

I had originally planned to border it with either purple or aqua - I ended up somehow buying the wrong quantities of fabric and used the light blue and brown bamboo print instead.  That probably didn't help the earth-tone situation.

Yesterday when I got home, there was a little tiny bit of sun left, so I took the quilt outside for some pictures before spending the night trying to cram it into a box to wrap it up for Saturday!

Completed back.

So the wrong quantity of fabrics leads to a lot of creative piecing on the back!  I had to re-use all of the scraps that had been cut off during the piecing process.  I kind of like it.  It's funny how sometimes when you're just improv piecing a quilt back together, you don't think too much of it but when you're supposed to make an improv quilt, you just freeze up!

Close up

The quilting isn't very fancy - there just wasn't enough time!  It's just stitch in the ditch outlining the diamonds (it's pieced together as squares and the quilting kind of shifts your eye's view from the squares to the diamonds).

Always label your quilts!

Tuesday night was label night!  I haven't really done labels on most of my quilts so far and someday I want to make something fancy and have it printed at Spoonflower, but for now, scraps of fabric will do!  

Another close-up

While quilting this, I realized that white thread isn't as neutral as I always think it is!  White actually really really really stands out.  I'm not that worried about it, but a brown or gray probably would've been a better choice for quilting this.

Yes, the hammock is staying out all winter just in case there's an impromptu photo shoot!

This last picture is my favorite - it looks so tropical!  A batik quilt on a hammock.  Unfortunately, it was like 40 degrees out, not 80.  But hey, on the plus side, the days will be getting longer again soon!

If there's time before I leave for Christmas, I'll share my finished Swoon blocks!  All nine of them are just sitting on a chair, taunting me.  Next Christmas.  That gives me a year to decide if I want to keep it for me or give it as a gift :)

Oh, and I ordered myself a Christmas present - a half yard bundle of Architextures!  Unfortunately, 8 days later, USPS is still hoarding it at a sorting facility...

Melissa