Sarah's Quilt

I'm entering a quilt, in the bed quilt category of http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2013/

  This is Sarah's quilt, start to finish.


Sarah loves fun, bright colors.  I found most of these material years ago, at a quilt store that has been closed for some time now.  I was going to make a 'Take 5' quilt, but, I changed my mind.  Instead, I decided that I wanted a quilt with pinwheels. 

Triangulations

I started out with Triangulations.  I just LOVE Triangulations!  I purchased the disk years ago, for a class I took.  These are so simple to use, and fun, too. 

Here are the first pinwheels.

Sarah's pinwheels

I was going to set the pinwheels on point, but, later changed my mind.  Isn't it great to not follow a pattern and do your own thing?  I decided to keep it simple, and just add sashing between the pinwheels.  OK, I seldom keep anything simple.  I decided that the sashing needed cornerstones, and, not just any cornerstones, but, pinwheel cornerstones, of course.

more half square triangles, waiting to become mini pinwheels

I was also told that I HAD TO HAVE purple in this quilt.  Ok, sashing will be PURPLE!
(oh yea, I also wanted to keep adding 'dots' to this quilt, can you tell?)

Sarah's quilt

OK, the first part of Sarah's quilt top was done, but, it wasn't big enough to fit her dorm bed.  Now to figure out borders.

1959 Singer Spartan hand crank

Oh yea, all of this was sewn on my 1959 Singer Spartan (192K) hand crank sewing machine.  This was my very first hand crank.  It came with a motor, but, I took it off and converted it.

I messed up the tension on the Spartan hand crank only an hour after finishing the sashing and cornerstones.  Oops!  (still haven't tried to work on it, bad girl)!  So, what's a girl to do, but switch to another hand crank sewing machine!?!  What?  You don't have several extra machines sitting around, waiting for their turn to be used?

1925 Singer 99 hand crank, stitching the backing for Sarah's quilt

OK, now that I've switched machines, it's time to design borders for this top.  I decided to use some of the extra large and small pinwheels in the borders.

Sarah's quilt top, with borders

Now for the SCARY part.  I am a hand quilter.  I've never paid someone to machine quilt a top for me.  EEK!  Scary to turn something over to someone else to quilt.  Thank goodness there are several machine quilters in my large quilt guild.  I'd been watching Julie Karlak's work for a few years now.  I know she is good.  Still scary to hand over this quilt.  Hubby even came and told her what he did and didn't want done to this top.  Julie handled us both, like the pro she is.  She even came up with a great overall pattern that made my pinwheels 'spin' with joy!

Sarah's quilt, quilted

up close of Julie's quilted swirls

up close of quilting on back of quilt

I finished the binding on this quilt, shortly before my son's college graduation ceremony.

Sarah's finished and bound quilt

I even used an extra pinwheel as a label on the back of the quilt.

label on back of Sarah's quilt

I even made a pillowcase to match this quilt.

pillowcase to match the quilt

This quilt is now waiting at my inlaws, so that they can give it to Sarah in early June.