After a tense trip through the wash last night, The Quilt is complete! I could not be any happier with it.
I ended up picking a solid turquoise Kona cotton for my binding, to match the turquoise print that I used for the lines between the beads. It’s so simple, but it does a nice job of making the lower half of the quilt not feel so boring in all of it’s off-white-ness. At first, I wished that I had more of the print to use for the binding, but it’s been years long gone. Once I found the close match in the Kona, it seemed like an obvious choice to go with a solid. I’m very pleased with it.
I’m also really pleased with how the quilting in the circles came out after the wash and dry. I was nervous that since I used such tight quilting lines that there was the possibility that I’d get some nasty puckering. I got lucky though, and the circles look fantastic both on the front and back of the quilt. I also love how it feels–the mass of quilting makes this so much more tactile than anything I’ve done before.
Last night’s washing wasn’t without a little drama though. I added a smidge of Downy to the wash to soften things up, but after it finished drying, I realized there were about a half a dozen little Downy stains all over the bottom of it. I scrubbed the spots with some detergent and sent it right back through the wash. So far, all the spots seem to have faded, but it’s certainly not the first thing you want to find on your finished project.
I am so happy to have this completed. It’s renewed an interest in finishing quilting projects that I’ve had sitting, waiting for me for several years. The time I spent hand quilting were relaxing and enjoyable again. To be this excited about finishing this project and moving on to more is well worth the time it took to finish this.
Fin!
OH…..that is such a striking and beautiful quilt! It was beautiful enough to make me click through, instead of just reading in my Google Reader. Congratulations on finishing it!
Terrific quilt…the colors, the quilting, the backing and binding choices. Love circles on quilts. You deserve to be proud of this one!
This is really beautiful. Nice job! 🙂
It’s really lovely. I have had this quilt on my someday list for a while and you have renewed my interest in making it.
Wow! What a wonderful job and I can imagine how wonderful you feel getting it done! I have a couple projects that have really been languishing, and none as involved as this. So now I have some motivation.
this turned out so fantastic, really impressed that you pushed through and finished it, i hope you gets lots of use out of it.
That looks great. I love the turquoise accents. I got so tired of those fabric softener stains that I’ve just switched to vinegar in the rinse on the rare occassion I use a softening agent at all.
Beautiful! Here’s to finished projects!
Some day, when you and Ben are away, I’m going to come over and “borrow” Love Beads… 🙂 I think this is the most beautiful quilt you’ve made so far…and I’m so proud of you for finishing such a big project! High five!!!
Simply spectactular, you are amazing
LOVE your quilt!!!! and your dog looks so adorable… like mine…!
This quilt is stunning! (I clicked through from Sew Mama Sew.) What an amazing piece you’ve created!
This is simply one of the of the most innovative quilts I’ve seen in a while. Deceptively simple, and deliciously modern, as well as slipping into a 60s mod decor as well. Fun!
I came from SMS.
Lovely quilt, Love those circles!
What wonderful work you do! Keep up the great work.
It’s so wonderful to see someone make one of our designs. Well done! I also wanted to comment about the hand quilting discussion in the other post.
Last November I finished a quilt for our upcoming book that I hand quilted nearly everyday for eight months. Although I enjoyed the hand quilting, I found it challenging to use the rocking stitch with the wool batting I had chosen. The loft of the batting was too high to be able to scoop the stitches. I was wondering if you have been able to figure out how to do the rocking stitch with wool batting. I decided to do a slightly longer stitch and poked and pulled using one hand on either side of the hoop. It was slower than the rocking stitch but the stitches were very consistent.
I popped in after seeing your quilt on SewMamaSew. What a beautiful job you did! Your quilt offered me just the validation I needed for a quilt I finished yesterday with diagonal quilting in only one direction. I thought to myself, “Is this really ok to stop without going back and doing diagonals in the opposite direction?” I loved how it looked but I was afraid I had broken some quilting rule. If I have, at least I am in good company. 🙂
I also saw your quilt on sewmamasew and just had to read about it. It is stunning! I’ve added you to my blogroll 🙂