may finish

This week I finished a quilt that was started some years ago. My fantasy forrest ended up 38" by 52" after a trip trough the washer and dryer. The batting is Warm & White. I quilted it with diagonal lines 2" apart, and then adding some quilting around the stars and the trees. The quilt now lives with my sweet 7 year old niece, who is celebrating her birthday today ; )

I am happy, she is happy, so it's like a fairy tale, right?

The process of making this quilt has not been so straight forward. Inspired by Gwen and Freddy's Collaborate Quilts, I decided to try their process of making blocks and then gather them into quilt tops.

I started making some trees and then some stars. The design wall was very helpful. The process quite painful. Bits and pieces came together. Frequent breaks. Looking for ways to progress. The top then got to spend more than a year in storage. It kept sending me accusing glances whenever I looked through the pile of finished tops. An upcoming birthday and a pretty red fabric purchase was the inspiration needed to finish it up. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

Framing the top in red and adding the last star brought it all together. The yellow binding lifted the mood a bit. It is backed in green. The quilt makes me think of little red riding hood, lost in the forrest....

Nifty pointed me in the direction of Sherri Lynn's interesting posts about improv quilting. I like to use different ways of improv techniques in my quilts. It can be fun, and it can be painful...

; )