FF: The Ranch Quilt. Finished.

Back in December, I finished a quilt top for my niece, E, who was expected end of December/early January. It sat, untouched, until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to just get it done.

The quilting had completely stumped me. How would I quilt it? What color thread? I considered a purple variegated and a lavender before finally settling on a gray that matched the background fabric. I considered a boxy FMQ stipple of sorts, a triangular/pointy stipple of sorts, echo quilting, straight lines radiating from the center, diagonal lines, a grid...and then I finally just put the quilt under the needle and stitched horizontal lines across each long strip. It wasn't anything complicated, and I had originally intended to go back and make the vertical lines to make a grid, but when I finished with the horizontal, I decided it was fine just as it was.

The backing is a large cut of this purple stars print that I picked up at my LQS, with a strip of purple scraps along the back. The back is much more plum than the blue-y purples of the front, but I like the contrast. I do not, however, like the stars fabric, as it did not behave well with my sewing machine. As Agatha is a rather undiscerning machine when it comes to what fabric she will sew, I'm fairly confident this fabric is just evil. Sure, Agatha is pretty snobby when it comes to thread--Italian all the way, baby!--but I've never had a problem with fabric. Then, as I was handstitching the binding, I encountered a lot more needle resistance than I usually do. I felt like I was stitching binding onto a batik backing! So something about this particular fabric was whack, and I was exceedingly glad to have this quilt finished.

I handstitched down this purple heart to serve as a label, and I am excited that Baby E will have her quilt soon.

While it's not exactly an original motif nowadays, I took my inspiration from an old bedspread and drew up the design. The cutting was a bit of a process, and I had to be careful when I was piecing to make sure I was on the right row, but it was pretty simple to piece, and I imagine I'll make this one again.

Finally, it's on my FAL list--finish four of nine--and it's my second quilt finish of the year, woo!


I'm linking up with TGIFF hosted this week by Persimon Dreams.