Bella gave the back her stamp of approval:
I was short about 9" of the backing I'd bought but no problem: I had some extra border fabric, a nice large label (exactly 9.5" high) and a few, no make that a TON of smaller pieces left from the front.
When I made this quilt last winter in Florida, (the post is here), I had no name for the quilt. As I pieced the backing I let my mind free-associate, realizing that I have yet another floral quilt... I came up with Savannah because we stayed there for a night on our way back up north this past spring, and I fell in love with that city. The floral fabrics are from the Shangri-Là line by 3 Sisters and they have an old-fashioned feel, so I thought the name "Savannah" à propos, seeing as I'd made it not long before the trip.
I purchased the fabrics at Cotton Patch Quilt Shop on their New Year's Day Fat Quarter Sale a few years ago. I wanted a large quilt for our bed. I'm not a fan of how much brown there is in this quilt; I would have preferred a focus fabric leaning to either more green or more blue. (Hmm, I see after finding the link for the Turning Twenty post that I wrote (January) that I wasn't a fan of the quilt at that point, with a flimsy finish.) Uh, which might be a reason as to why the fabric has sat on my stash shelves for oh, about five years... I'm liking it a little more now that I've quilted it, but I still don't have a "wow-I-love-this-quilt" feeling. I bought the backing from Cotton Patch's sale section (love that) at the time I bought the fat quarters for the front. It is Jacobean Joyeux/Provence by Benartex.
You may recall I had issues with tension on the Watercolour Steps quilt I recently quilted on Avril, my Avanté. I am worried that I might have messed up the timing or something on my machine when I hit my blue ruler while quilting Summer Breeze. I thought I would test the tension by using a basic cotton thread for this quilt. I had nearly a full spool of Aurifil variegated cotton left over from Brady's quilt, and I thought it would blend in nicely with the multi-coloured fabrics in this quilt. I just wanted a flowing, fairly large-scale overall design for this quilt as the fabrics all blend. The Aurifil sewed quite nicely once I played with the top and bobbin tension for a while. I really am liking Aurifil more and more...and man, there's a LOT of thread on those 1300 metre spools!! This quilt took 2.5 bobbins so about 500 yards of thread.
For the rectangles set on their long side, I quilted a figure 8 design |
And for the rectangles set on their short side, I did a woven design |
I did have trouble with the Sulky Blendables thread I used, which is not normal for me. I ended up stitching with the stitch regulator on, and sewing very slowly. Even so, it broke fairly frequently, seeming to get pulled down beneath the quilt. I still blame hitting the ruler...did I mention I hit it again during the quilting of this quilt? It was while I was quilting the border 1/4" from the edge. The hopping foot hopped over the ruler, probably because of me holding the ruler against the wrong side of the foot, or just the trickiness of quilting the very edges of a quilt...anyhow, chunk #2 flew out, a small one, which I have yet to find to Krazy Glue back in...might have a new ruler in my future here. Sigh. And Avril has a trip in her future to the doctor to get checked out.
Anyhow, it is just the perfect thread for the feathers I did in the borders, so I persevered. Sorry for the hasty pictures, and rumpled quilt...
Swirls and hooks, a teardrop shape echoed, and a leaf design, echoed again, are what I used for the centre of the quilt |
Note, Angela Walters' new book! |
I plan to sew the binding on tonight or tomorrow, and then hand-stitch it to the back as we travel down to Florida...oh YEAH! It's official: we have bought a house--EEEEEK!-- and we are leaving this weekend to move our stuff out of storage and into our new abode. I've kept that under wraps for some time...anyhow, it's been a tad hectic this last month and especially this past week as we switch gears to head south with the birds!