I think this is a great idea and it's a beautiful quilt.
Do you do the swirls free motion or with a pattern. I just love the way they look but I haven't mastered anything tougher than meanders and a few leaves or stars!

Kate

Yep, I love this one too! Got me thinking about doing another quilt now...
Cheers,
Peggy

Kate,

This is a pantograph pattern - I have a long-arm quilting machine, and I put the pattern on the table, and follow it with a stylus.

I would love to be better at free-hand quilting, and I am improving. But for quilts that matter - like the Quilts of Valor, or one for my wife-in-law, I'm not willing to send or give a practice quilt.

Mary

Another beauty,thanks for sharing with us.
Kathi

OMG, just beautiful!!! I'm in love w/ this pattern, I like just about every one of it that I've seen. You did a FABULOUS job, even down to the pieced binding! Envy you the longarm ... sigh

Would you like to adopt me? I love that, the colors are just great and the quilting is beautiful. DH did say I could use a long arm ........... hum.

beverly

This is just beautiful and I love the colors.
Salijo

Great quilt and a lovily idea for a hostess gift. She is sure to be wonderfully surprised. I wish you were coming to see me. TFS Jayn

Beverly,

I have one child of my own and two step-kids, so probably not. The stock market today is making me think of getting a job, LOL.

But if you're ever near me in central TX, I'd certainly let you give the longarm machine a test run!

I have to admit - these colors are my colors, and I started this quilt as a lap quilt for my husband. It was he, when we learned of the possibility of a trip to see our son and grandson, that suggested I "repurpose" the quilt and finish it for wife-in-law and her husband.

This one will be hard to part with. But I have more fabric - there's always another design to explore.

Another beautiful quilt its about the best "disappering 9 patch" I have seen and we have all made plenty between us.

Gillian.

Mary, Gorgeous! And the quilting??? Fantastic!!!!

SharonG/FL

very beauitful!

I really like how the white makes the colors appear to "float" on the background. Great Job!

Gorgeous quilt and very nice of you to bring it to your wife-in-law!

Would you mind explained how you do your pieced binding? By the time I get to binding I'm usually in a hurry to just finish the quilt, but I really like how your quilts look with that extra touch. Do you sew a bunch of strips together, then cut them - almost like a rail fence - and then sew them into long binding strips?

Lola

i LOVE it!!! Those colors are gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful!!! And I don't think the 'WIL' is strange at all.
When I was divorced MANY MANY years ago the DH's fam did not believe in divorce and they would not speak to me.
The children are the ones that suffer.
Your way it is win for everyone!!!
Rosa

Arrgh! I have logged in three times, and had to log into this post in order to answer! Annoying.

OK, the pieced binding. I cut 3" crosswise strips. I stagger the starting points, stepping each consecutive strip a bit further down. Use your ruler with the 45 degree angle against the cut edge of the first strip to determine the step down distance. You want your first bias cut to cut off triangles, not chunks of usable fabric. This quilt (80x 70ish) used 2 strip sets, each with 5 fabrics.

I join 5 or 6 strips, (with the step-down), press the seams OPEN, and then cut the strip set on the bias. The separate bias cut strips will join together easily.

Cut the bias binding strips the width you would normally cut for your binding. In my case, I prefer a slightly wider binding than most, so I cut the bias strip-set at 3". I sew to the quilt at about 3'8", mitering the corners, then fold to the back.

The 3" crosswise strips, joined and cut on the bias give you about a 7" visible length of each color. You can vary this in so many ways. Narrow strips - more seams, wider strips - leass variation.

Thanks for explaining the bindings. I wouldn't have thought to do it on the bias, but now that I look at your quilt again I see it. It looks very nice. I think I may try that soon!

I should have said - I cut my bias strips at 3", but then I do fold in half and press them.

In this case cutting on the bias spreads out all the seam allowances, so they don't bunch up in one location.

That's really cheerful and pretty, and the quilting is marvelous.

You've made a wonderful quilt! Happy colors and beautiful quilting. I completely understand the ex friendliness. We have a couple of ex's in our family and my mom made quilts for some of them also.

Love your quilt and colors. Would you mind sharing the block size you started with? This type of quilt is on my "To Do" list. Thanks in advance.

Hi quilts4mom,

I started out with 5.5" blocks, only because that made the best use of my blue scraps - because they really were scraps, LOL, offcuts from some other quilt.

If I were starting with yardage, I'd go for 6" blocks, because that's the easiest to cut with my 6x24" ruler. The large squares would then finish at 5.5".

Mary C... Thank you so much for the information.

Hi Mary,
Hope it's okay that I've brought this up to the top. I'm getting ready for a retreat and preparing a few "kits" to take along so I won't have to cut much there.
I just love your version of this technique. Do you remember how big your quilt turned out?
Thanks in advance,
Kelly

Of course I don't mind, LOL. It was fun to see the quilt again.

I said up-thread that the individual squares to make the nine-patch were 5.5", which made the block 15" finished if left as a nine-patch. Sliced and diced you lose a half inch in both directions, so the finished block is 14.5".

This quilt was 20 blocks (4 x 5) with 5" borders. Overall size was 68 x 82.5".

But you could start out with any size block for the nine-patch, and adjust it for your needs.

Thanks, Mary,
I found some beautiful fabric and would love to get started on this soon!
Best wishes,
Kelly