Friday 22 February 2013

A Wheel Quilt of my very own!

Morning all!

A year after heavily crushing on this pattern by Rachel of Stitched in Color and seriously doubting I'd ever have the sewing skills to make one, I have completed my very own Wheel Quilt. It is one of the final week's projects for Curves Class.

I love it. I love it a lot more than I expected to.




I did not use fabrics that were 'oh my god I love these so much anything they go in will be perfect!'. Instead I had two charm packs I was kind of meh about, that I'd bought early last summer. One, Good Fortune by Kate Spain, I really loved online, but when I got the charm pack I was a bit put off by the size of the prints and the punch you in the face colours confusingly (to me) combined with a wishy-washy beige-grey. The other charm pack was Birds and Berries by Lauren & Jessi Jung. It is a lovely collection, but I found the amount of turquoise in it overwhelming. Neither inspired me to come up with a pattern I really wanted to make. So they sat. And sat.

I signed up to do Curves Class and then realised I had no money to buy new fabrics for the projects. I had to rely on my stash and whatever old sheets and fabrics I had lying around my parent's house. Thankfully, I have been buying fabrics since I was a teenager and hoarding them. Way before I started sewing or quilting. But this is I think the greatest revelation of Curves Class to me. (Well, it's on a par with overcoming my fear of curves and discovering how much fun improv piecing is - seriously! Why have I not been doing this already???) Yeah, the other greatest revelation: This quilt was living in my stash AND I HAD NO IDEA!

The backing is Turtle Bay from Prince Charming by Tula Pink. I have tonnes of this for some reason...

It begs the question - what else is living in my stash?? How do I get the vision to see the possibilities?? It's exciting and overwhelming!


This quilt finished at 38" square. The binding is the remaining charms cut into 2.5" strips. I successfully attached the binding using a combination of Rachel's zig-zag binding tutorial and Canoe Ridge Creations' double fold binding tutorial. I had tried before and failed miserably, so yay!! I can only continue to improve now I have the technique right.

I have no one to give this to, and no baby of my own to put it aside for. I will keep it though and eventually I'll find the perfect recipient for it. I'm not finished stroking it and looking at it just yet anyway!

I'm off now to try and finish up the Orange Peel Cushion for Curves Class. Then it's onwards to various horribly delayed BOM blocks over the weekend. That may be wishful thinking, but maybe by this time next week I'll have them done :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Linking up to TGIFF at Gingersnaps Quilts this week.

And to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

19 comments:

  1. It is really lovely Aoife, congrats on mastering those curves. Those "bleh" fabrics have really come together too.

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  2. Good on you! I concur on the Good Fortune range....I just finished a quilt for my daughter using a layer cake and was a bit mystified by the wishy washy grey colour!

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  3. What a fantastic Finish! You know I had the same issue with Kate Spain's Serenade line! They look so good online and then that wishy washy colour I cannot seem to match and too many prints in the line that makes it confusing jumble. You have learned the greatest skill: matching fabrics of different lines! You would think everything had been made to go together, very nicely done!

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  4. What a great finish. I too had the same issue with a couple of Kate Spain's most recent lines. Your quilt looks wonderful and you did a great job making everything look great together.

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  5. I. love. this. quilt. (Just thought you should know.)

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  6. Love it. I love how scrappy quilts can make fabrics shine. This pattern looks great for learning curve. Nice job!

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  7. Fabulous!! the wheel looks amazing and I love your backing fabric :)

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  8. Wow! I love it. If it were mine, I'd keep it... it doesn't look too "needs to go to a baby", KWIM?

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  9. Beautiful! Excited to see what you make with the rest of your stash - sometimes I wonder what I could make out of mine, if I dared to dive into it (although really it is quite modest!)!!!

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  10. Oh, well done on those super curves! I'm not brave enough to try anything other than straight sewing for now, so I really envy you having mastered this.

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  11. Great finish! It's so beautiful and colorful, I love it!
    Have a great weekend!

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  12. It looks like a great project to showcase fabrics. I love it that you have one it 'large'.

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  13. It's beautiful! I have a stash of Good Fortune, I haven't cut into it yet...great job!

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  14. I love the colors you used. I just might have to make my own.

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  15. Wonderful quilt! As much as fun as it is to buy new fabric, it's so satisfying to use up stash fabric.

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  16. So pretty!! Great job!! Isn't it great how taking a snippet of fabric you are not fond of can turn into something you love!!

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  17. So fun to use fabrics that sit and sit and SIT some more waiting for the perfect project to be placed into and make us smile!! Thanks for sharing/showing off your finished wheel!

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