Petunia Patch #1

Here she is - a modified version of the Petunia Patch quilt 

from my Book of the Month selection, Scrappy and Happy Quilts (affiliate link).

The original pattern in the book calls for 25 petunias, which makes a quilt 68" x 68". I choose to only make a portion of the quilt, one of my many techniques for altering a pattern to suit my size needs. With 13 petunia blocks, this quilt measures 49" x 49".

Here's closeup pics before the story of why this quilt is Petunia Patch #1.

Check out that pink backing, from the stash!

Now for the story: this quilt comes with some things I like and some I don't. First, the good.

- It was easy to make - though repetitious - chain stitching the petals and using my Stacked Trimming technique helped.

- Pink fat quarters worked great to give a variety of petunias.

- It's an overall adorable quilt, no matter what the size!

And now for the bad, which is my perception and in no way any fault of the pattern.

- It's larger than I'd like for a baby quilt, which is totally my mistake for not doing the quilt math before starting in on making the blocks. I like baby quilts around 40" x 40", and at 49" x 49", this one is big.

- The block size is more appropriate for the large quilt. In this modified version, the petunias look like they would eat up any baby laying on it! 

There really is something to be said for scale.

Notice the bad is all a size issue. So, what to do? Since this is a commissioned quilt, I talked with the grandma, explaining the outcome and my desire to remake the quilt on a smaller scale. She agreed, which means I'm off again to chain stitch and stack trim. And fortunately, I have enough of the fabrics left, so no issue there. Petunia Patch #2 coming up, hopefully, with a more pleasing size - time to get to work.

May you have a great day quilting!

Stacked Trimming

What the heck is that?

It's my idea of mass trimming all of those petal units for the Petunia Patch quilt (affiliate link). I do so like speed and efficiency!!

Remember that pile of chain pieced pink petal units from Wednesday?

Now all of the excess fabric on the corners needs trimming. Since the units are all the same size with three sides to trim, stacking them makes for a super fast and efficient way to get the job done.

In the upper left of the picture are the stacks trimmed, the center shows the ruler lined up for a 1/4" seam allowance, and on the right are the units remaining - super fast!

A few hints for attempting this:

- Start with a new, sharp cutting blade. A dull one won't go through all the layers.

- Don't stack more than 4 units. This many units creates 8 layers of fabric, which is plenty to cut through.

- Stack the layers as accurately as possible.

- Use a ruler to make a 1/4" seam allowance, and press firmly. No shifting allowed!

- Seam allowances may vary from 1/8" to 3/8", depending upon how accurately the seam is sewn, and how well the units are stacked. It's ok to have this seam allowance variation.

Now that the chain piecing and the super fast stacked trimming is done, I'm moving onto block assembly, and ultimately the birth of a quilt top! More to come....

Happy Quilting!

Midweek Makers #175

Welcome to Midweek Makers - glad you're here! I'm showing off a sea of chain stitched petals for the Petunia Patch baby quilt - a really cute quilt pattern from the Scrappy and Happy Quilts book! (affiliate link)

Though lots of stitching and trimming, it will be worth it - more to come!

Did you notice all the flying geese that hit Midweek Makers last week? Check these out:

from the Cheeky Cognoscenti, a beautiful quilting plan around her whirling geese,

                                   

from 2 Dogs Studio, these geese that sparkle on the black background,

                                  

from Time 4 Stitchin, these really pretty blue geese blocks,

                        

and though these aren't technically geese, I love this quilt from Anja Quilts.

                         

Now it's your turn - come share what you're working on!

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Batik Scrap Quilt

Yeah! I finally get to share the quilted batik UFO!

I was so inspired by the pantograph I put on Ketra's quilt, that I decided to quilt this the same way. The only change was the choice of thread - this one is quilted with a bright yellow-orange, which looks quite lovely.

Isn't that panto just perfect on this quilt too?

Why did I wait so long to finish this? My guess is that I was thinking of a custom quilt design, but couldn't come up with a design years ago. So the quilt hung in the closet, waiting. 

Waiting for that perfect idea! Forget the custom stuff - this panto looks great!

This quilt is for my older son, who admired it when I first pieced it. The border batik is from yardage I purchased at a warehouse when in LA for one of his hockey tournaments. And I had plenty of that yardage to use on the back, plus binding.

That picture happens to show more of a pink area, though overall, the back is more orange, my son's favorite color.

Just like Seafarer was meant for my younger son, this one is perfect for my older kid!

I'm super happy with how this turned out, even if it did take years. I firmly believe that sometimes quilts just need to sit for awhile, waiting for the right moment to come to completion. Hopefully, that doesn't happen to the majority of them!

Happy Quilting!