Raindrops - A Finished Quilt

It was my turn to be in charge of the quilt for our do. Good Stitches Believe Circle quilt in May. I love the months leading up to my turn. I'm always on the look out for something special for our group to make. Most of my ideas come from my quilt inspiration board on Pinterest. This month was no different. There was an art print that I wanted to turn into a quilt and I knew this group of quilters would be up for the challenge.

I sent them all a link to the print and a template to use so the raindrops would all be the same size.

I sent them a picture of my raindrops, too, to help them get inspired.

They took it from there. Once all the fun mail arrived, there were 56 raindrops to play with. No piecing, lots of piecing, applique; these raindrops had it all. And plenty of color, too.

The art print had a dark background and I wanted to do the same but I did not want to use black. I tried several options, including some light colors, and settled for a deep forest green for the background.

There is a bit of experimentation in this quilt. I wanted to raw edge applique each raindrop to the background as part of the quilting process. Two steps in one, right? I didn't want to use any sort of fusible to hold the raindrops down because I wanted the finished quilt to be soft and cuddly. The solution was to use spots of 505 spray to adhere them to the background. Once I started quilting, they all started coming loose (505 is a temporary adhesive so I knew I was taking a risk) and I was in fear of having them all fall right off the quilt top. With the quilt under the machine, I carefully pinned each raindrop to the quilt to assure it would stay put until it was stitched down.

The quilting is a free motion squiggly line around each of the raindrops, to secure them to the quilt and leave plenty of room for some good fraying once the quilt is washed. This might be the first quilt I have ever done completely with free motion and no thread breaks. It was wonderful and allowed me to complete all of the quilting in under three hours. That might be a record.

The binding is from one of the first fabric lines I carried when I had my shop. It is Baby Genius from Benartex. 2006 I think. It is fun and bright and adds whimsy to any quilt.

Here is a view of the back. I had to go with a sunny yellow on the back to counter all the rain happening on the front.

All of the pictures so far were taken before the quilt was washed. Since all of our Believe Circle quilts end up in the hands of children, I always wash them before sending them off.

Here's how those raindrops fared after a good wash and dry.

And, of course, no quilt is complete without our awesome do. Good Stitches label. 

This quilt will be headed to a new home this week.

Lucky me, I'm in charge of our quilt for June, too.