Simmer - A Finished Quilt

The first hint of cooler temperatures was in the air this past weekend so it was the perfect time to finish this quilt full of yummy fall colors. A few weeks ago, I posted about these blocks. This quilt stalled after the blocks were made. I had to set them aside to think about a layout and even if I liked them enough to keep going. Individually, most of the blocks were great, but all together, they became a jumbled mess.

Hello sashing. They just needed a little something to separate them from each other. There is a funny story about the sashing fabric. A fellow quilter was cleaning out and invited me over to assist in reducing her stash. There was a box in the corner with the label "ugly fabric". My reaction surprised me. I was almost offended that any fabric would be relegated to a box with such a label. This stack of neutral solids is part of what was in that box, which I of course had to rescue. They aren't glamorous but they certainly are not ugly and served to be quite useful in this project.

The majority of the fabric in this quilt is by Kaffe Fassett.

There wasn't enough of any single color for the back so these four one yard cuts worked nicely with their similar colors. This fabric was also pulled from the "ugly fabric" box.

Wavy quilting lines cover the blocks both horizontally and vertically. I love the grid that is formed.

A spiral was quilted on each cornerstone. The spirals on the edges and corners spill off the sides of the quilt. This is one corner before binding.

Here's a better look at the quilting from the front.

Each block is just a little over 14". The quilt finishes at 67" square.

The binding is a solid rusty color that is the same as one of the backing fabrics.

This project was the perfect start to this fall quilting season.

This quilt is available for purchase in my Etsy store.

Linking up to finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts and My Journey Back's Fabulous Fall Party.

A Quilt That Needs to Simmer

One of the blogs I read regularly is Exuberant Color. She is an awesome quilt maker with a great eye for color and design. By way of Pinterest, I happened to run across this post of hers from 2011 with a tutorial for making a quick quilt top. I pinned it and moved on. A week or two later, as part of my sewing room clean out effort, I came upon this lovely set of fabric.

I immediately remembered that tutorial and decided to try it with these. What I didn't realize is that most of them were too small to get all the pieces I needed for the blocks. That sent me back to the stash to find a few more friends to join these.

This is the final stack. Enough for sixteen blocks.

These blocks. 

Kind of boring if you just stop here. The next step is to cut up the blocks.

And then shuffle them and sew them back together.

I love the block. And then I put them all together.

I didn't like them so much anymore. I arranged and rearranged, but no matter what I did, they just look like a jumbled mess.

I put them away for a day, then tried again. It was no better. One thing I really don't like is the random blobs of light fabric. I think I should have been a little less random in my shuffling and sewing. For now, I've made a pile of blocks I really like and a pile of blocks that I'm not super fond of. I think there will be some unsewing going on soon. Once I get happy with the blocks, then I think I'm going to try a layout with some sashing between each block. There is really no place for the eye to rest and it just makes me tired to look at it as it is.

I'm sure there is something wonderful lurking in there, but for now, this one is going away for a few days. I need to give my eyes a rest before taking the next step. Sometimes a quilt comes easy, and sometimes it has to simmer for a while.