It’s been a while since I actually declared I would finish something at the beginning of the month and actually finished it. Not that there haven’t been other finishes over the past 6 months. This month I listed the Birthday Quilt, although I really wasn’t certain I would be able to finish it with everything else I wanted to also work on. But the Birthday Quilt (and pillow case) is completed.
This is called the Birthday Quilt because I received the blue and white Pennsylvania blocks as part of a birthday swap with the Quilt In a Day Community On-line Forum back in 2009. Wanting a larger quilt, I set the blocks on point and made the yellow and blue LeMoyne stars. I finished the quilt top in August 2009. Then it sat waiting for either a border – although I was pretty sure I didn’t want a border, or for quilting inspiration to strike.
This year for my 50th birthday I decided I was going to finish this quilt. I scheduled time at Quilted Memories, and then panicked because I only had half of the quilting figured out. Fortunately before I was scheduled to work on the quilt, I figured out the rest of the quilting.
The quilting took five hours and 5 1/2 pre-wound bobbins of Bottom Line. The top thread is Omni Thread in Light Tan. Since this was basically the first time I put this much quilting into a quilt I wanted thread to disappear, but yet at the same time I needed to be able to see it and not have it leap off the quilt in the blue and yellow. I’m very pleased at how well the Light Tan worked.
The batting is Hobbs’ Tuscany 100% Bleached Cotton. Something I’ve read said it will shrink 3% – 5%. This quilt shrank about 5% as it measured 67 1/2″ x 81 3/4″ after binding and when I took it out of the dryer it measured 63″ x 77″.
The backing fabric was made from 2 100% cotton Better Homes and Garden tablecloths.
Finally, the binding. As late as Friday night after the quilt was trimmed I had no idea what I was going to use for binding. But when I opened my box of blue fabric and started digging, I found the perfect fabric.
It’s shades of blue, white and just a touch of yellow. I thought I would have a strip left over, but as it turns out there are only the triangles trimmed from making the binding. After attaching the binding to the quilt I had just enough binding left to go around two edges of the label.
I also made a matching pillowcase. The body is from the backing and the blue is from one of the stars.
A perfect Finish for your 50th year. Happy Birthday! Love the blues with a bit of Yellow.
Simply beautiful! I love the texture your quilting adds!