My Quilt of the Year

It would seem that I make one 'serious' quilt each year.

This quilt was started in October 2013 from a stunning layer cake & jelly roll.

"Full Circle" by Kathy Schmitz for Moda.

I fell in love with this fabric when it was released a couple of years ago.  The jelly roll & layer cake were Christmas presents. They sat in my cupboard waiting for the perfect project.  I purchased matching panels because they looked so much like hand stitching.

Image from http://www.kathyschmitz.com/

 One of my UFO craft ladies asked about the drunkard's path and that was all the motivation I needed.

I played with a couple of layouts

(Opera House)

 and jumbled disks - which obviously I chose as here I am holding the pieced center.

 This beautiful piece then just sat in the cupboard while the Christmas rush happened and inspiration to strike for borders. 

Come February I decided it couldn't sit there any more.  I had to finish it.  Our Quilt show was coming up and I have always needed a deadline.

The tan border you can see below came from the panels I had purchased. The panel had little squares surrounded by ricrac with a broad border at the bottom.  As luck would have it, I had enough borders from panels to encircle the whole centre with what looked like a ricrac border

 I was then able to piece the border with  little "embroidered" panels from the larger panel print.

At this point I loved it and here was where I could use my Jelly Roll.

 Now I knew I wanted piano keys, but I couldn't work out what size 'chunks' of colour I needed.

In this photo you will see L-R - 2 strips wide, single strips, big chunks of colour.

 

I liked  the single strip piano keys but felt they were a bit busy for the 'embroidered' blocks in the border, the big chunks were just too chunky, so it was the 2 strips that won.

Sew, sew, sew

 oops a little reverse sew

 and like magic - it was a flimsy.

 

and it looks soooo good on our bed.

 I am so excited by this quilt.  I will give you the next installment tomorrow.