Saturday, October 29, 2011

Bliss pinwheels!

Bliss pinwheel quilt
I finished hand sewing the binding on this quilt yesterday afternoon and took it outside for a quick photo shoot just in time to enter it in the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy. For those of you who are regular readers you will know all about this quilt but for those who are are visiting from the  Bloggers Quilt Festival I will give you a run-down on its statistics :-) Oh and welcome if you are new here! You welcome to hang around and have a look at what I get up to.
Bliss pinwheel quilt
So this quilt was started with a jellyroll of that pretty fabric collection called "Bliss by Bonnie and Camille". The framed 6 inch pinwheel blocks were originally going to be sewn together to make 12 inch blocks but I decided that they looked better framed individually with the coordinating solids. I also added yoyo flowers to each pinwheel.

Bliss pinwheel quilt
I then added a wide border in one of the pretty red prints then machine appliqued a meandering vine with clusters of yoyo blossoms. 
Once I finished the top I was a little stuck on how I should quilt it. I love the look of hand quilting but also like simple straight line machine quilting so I did a bit of each. Another problem that stopped the progression of this quilt was trying to find the right shades of Pearl cotton to hand quilt it in but I finally found the right colours after a lot of searching every time I went out of town. (I live in a small coastal town 2 hours drive from any city with a decent amount of shops.) 

Bliss pinwheel quilt

The pinwheels are hand quilted with circles of Pearle thread and quilting cotton to give the idea of a spinning pinwheel. 

Bliss pinwheel quilt
The border is hand quilted using the Pearl thread in a meandering line with little loopy flowers to echo the clusters of yoyo blossoms.

Bliss pinwheel quilt
Here's a photo of the back to give you a better idea of the border quilting.

Bliss pinwheel quilt
For the straight line quilting I used a variegated thread in shades similar to the fabrics.

Bliss pinwheel quilt
I used a solid red to bind it which I think frames it all nicely. I always use a double thickness of binding for better durability.

Bliss pinwheel quilt
This quilt, which measures 50"x70", is special to me because it's the first quilt I've made specifically to sell in my shop and also it's the first quilt I've made using just one fabric collection. I love how it turned out and would be quite happy to keep it if it doesn't sell. When I made the initial pinwheel blocks I ended up with too many so have made another quilt top (crib size and waiting to be quilted) plus a bolster pillow to match the quilt. 
I do hope you enjoyed reading about the makings of this quilt and thanks to Amy for hosting this fun Bloggers Quilt Festival. I'm off to check everyone elses entries now!


22 comments:

Margaret said...

What a beautiful, beautiful quilt! I absolutely love the colours and the gorgeous thread, hand stitching, and of course the yo-yo's. Very sweet indeed!

trish said...

Your quilt is just precious!
I adore your hand stitches and color choices! :o)

The Thompsons said...

It's beautiful! I love the blossoms!

Molly said...

Beautiful, colorful and full of whimsy with the yo yos. Love it!

Debbie said...

What a darling use of Bliss!! Love your hand stitching - lovely addition!

Michelle said...

Oh my! so pretty... love the yoyo's

Katy Cameron said...

Oh that is beautiful! Love the pinwheels, and the yo-yos and how you quilted it. Might have to pin this to try myself one day

Leslie said...

i love all of the gorgeous hand quilting you do!!! so stunning and all the little details just make this a really amazing quilt.

Pomona said...

It is such a lovely quilt - the colours are so lovely together, and you have quilted it beautifully!

Pomona x

Wendy said...

So gorgeous! I mean, you can't go wrong with Bliss (my favourite line) but this design is gorgeous too, and I LOVE the design in the sashing.

Ariane said...

Your quilt is gorgeous!!! I love the quilting and the yo-yo's in the border!!!

Diane said...

Catherine, this is beautiful! Love it, nice job.

A Time for Stitching said...

Your quilt is so lovely!! I have a quilt in progress with straight machine stitching in the middle and was wondering how it would look with some hand stitching in the borders. Seeing your beautiful quilt, I can see that it goes together very well so will give it serious consideration.
Teresa x

Martine Kuciel said...

je trouve votre quilt très réussi ,les couleurs et le design sont vraiment en harmonie ,félicitations pour cet ouvrage

Erin @ Why Not Sew? Quilts said...

Beautiful. Love the hand quilting. Your pinwheels are wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Stunning work. You have really done a beautiful, beautiful job. Thanks for sharing

Eileen said...

What a vibrant and fun quilt. It's just perfect and love it. What nice quilting, love the yo-yos and everything about it! Thanks for sharing and have a great day

Karen said...

Its is beautiful Catherine! Gorgeous colours. You did a great job.

Unknown said...

I am impressed with all the hand stitching. I think you should keep it, don't sell it.

Unknown said...

your addition of the yoyos, the sashing (i think that's what they call it) around the blocks, along with the hand-quilting makes this quilt really special Catherine. a lovely way to use a coordinated jelly roll!

Kit Lang said...

So pretty! Thanks for sharing. :)

Deb said...

Oh this gorgeous! Once I get back to my normal computer I will have to pin it on Pinterest.

I think you need to keep it :)

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