[quilting] Quilt #2

Had a week off last week and spent it gardening and quilting. My aunt, who is an insanely good quilter, came over on Tuesday morning to help me with the basics. I had ordered a bunch of pre-cut batik charm pack squares and just wanted to make something simple. This was my first/only quilt and I love how random it is.

We started by laying out squares on the spare bed:

Santana helped:

Murderface helped, too:

I settled on 4-squares of color with 2" muslin borders. The plan was to have my aunt guide me through the first row and then I'd be able to do the rest myself. Who knew that quilting is like 75% ironing. It's so much ironing: pressing seams, sewing a bit, pressing seams, sewing, pressing, sewing, pressing. But I learned from the best and by Tuesday evening, I had three rows complete:

Wednesday morning, five rows done:

Wednesday afternoon, all seven rows done:

Whhaaaat. I love it. Thursday I spent the day doing plant-stuff but Friday morning I went to Hen House Fabrics in White River Junction to get fabric for the sides (the quilt top was long enough but didn't really hang off the sides of the bed much at all) and back and binding.

I added two blue batik tree panels down the sides and more muslin border around the whole thing. This is completely finished top:

Another random, mis-matchy quilt. Not much order to it, which I like best. It's more my style. 

Fabric for the back (which I flipping love):

Saturday morning I drove up to Barnyard Quilting to drop it off to be professionally finished. Oh man, there were decisions to make there- what batting to get (I chose 100% wool), what thread to choose (you can choose a different thread for the top AND bottom) and what the actual quilting pattern will be (like... HUNDREDS of choices- I'm a Libra so I debated incessantly over so many before I just decided to go with the only I originally said I liked). I get to pick up the finished quilt in just over a week from now! I can't wait!

I have another pre-cut charm pack with more floral patterns. If I can crank out a quilt top in just a few days, I'll def give them a try the next long weekend I have.