Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Happy Birthday Rachel

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Ages and ages ago when I first started making quilts for Swaziland, one of the first ones I made was this one, made from the New Wave pattern by Oh, Fransson!: 

new wave, DONE

At the time I remember her going on about how much she liked the pattern, the fabrics, and so I made a mental note to make her one later, after all the crazy quilt-making madness was over and my quilts were off to Africa. 

About two months ago I ordered a lovely stack of fat quarters in one of my favorite fabrics lines, ever, Good Folks, and proceeded to chop them all up into wedge shapes in preparation for making this quilt again. I'm glad I did it in advance, because if I'd waited there would be no quilt. We're so broke right now!! Ugh, anyway, the second time around is always WAY easier, and this one came together really quickly--about four days from beginning to end! Fun. I love things that work out fast. Instant gratification, people. I'm all about it. 

rachel's quilt 2
I like the way this one came out more than the original I made. This time, I elongated the original pattern from a six inch wide wedge to a nine inch wedge, and added more fat quarters (supplementing my supply with one Amy Butler and one Tina Givens print) so it would be longer than the original pattern. I think the original was supposed to be about 50 x 50ish. Mine was more like 52 x 70, mostly because I don't like lap quilts. If I want to snuggle up under a quilt, I want my whole body to fit under it, not just my legs. I mean, how is that fun? Warm legs, cold everything else? Nah.

rachel's quilt

I used Freebird Eggs in Grass for the binding, which matched the greens in the Good Folks fabrics really well.. I'm getting MUCH better at machine binding I have to say. And although I'm not much of one for gadgets, the bias tape maker I bought last year has been worth more than it's weight in gold. Five minutes and an iron and I have yards of binding ready to slap on. Good times. Makes me cringe to think of all those nice quilts that I bound with poly blend bias tape from Joann's. *shudder*

Anyway, I got an email this morning from Rachel telling me she was currently putting her new quilt to good use, which really, is the best thing a person can say about a quilt, isn't it?



5 comments:

Rachel at Stitched in Color said...

I am SO impressed that you can get this accomplished in 4 days! When I made the New Wave pattern I elongated the wedges too. Great minds...

rachel.lyn said...

i cannot even tell you how much i LOOOOVE this quilt! sitting under it now :) haha

Ali said...

I love it! How did you quilt it? I have a New Wave top and cannot figure out how I want to quilt it!

Jenn Grigoryev (jenn of all trades) said...

Alexandra, for the quilting I decided to keep it simple and quilt along the waves. I did it along the white strips, about 1/4 inch from the colored prints on either side of the strip. I wasn't sure about it at first but when I was done it lay really nicely and was super soft.

Anonymous said...

beautifulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll