Friday, May 6, 2022

Whirling Petals - A Hands2Help Quilt

I am happy to report that my second H2H quilt this year is a wrap! Hands2Help is being hosted this year by Mari at The Academic Quilter.

I had a goal this year to use up a bunch of leftover floral scraps, and some stash that I knew I wasn't going to use for the intended purpose. I made a dent, albeit small, in the pile.

Here is the quilt as a flimsy. In the tutorial post, (two quilt tutorials are in that link) I just had the EQ mockup because I hadn't quite got the quilt together, since this was an unplanned H2H design! I did not have enough of the navy hand-dyed fabric to do a border as I'd hoped, but at least I did have enough for sashing between all the blocks and to offset the columns.


The flowers are made from floral fabrics left over from backings, from bags, from curtains and several from colour wash days. I looked through my stash of batting chunks and found a bag of long lengths of Hobbs cotton/polyester that worked out perfectly. I laid them vertically on the already-loaded backing and hand-whipstitched four of them together for the top half of the quilt as they lay on there, letting the lower sections just hang off the rollers as one does. I felt they were pretty stable at that point, and with the fair amount of quilting I was planning, I knew it would be fine. And it was!

I was originally going to do an all-over meander as I did on English Garden, the first H2H quilt. Then I thought hmm, maybe flowing lines, interspersed with some large petal flowers which I love to quilt. And then--!

I hit upon making the large petal flower motif within each flower block, and meandering around it to the next one. Ditch-stitching went along the 1" sashing strips to stabilize the quilt a bit. I had been so impressed with the Exquisite polyester I used in English Garden, that I looked for a navy and found an Isacord in a deep royal blue. Again it flowed so well, not one break, and lovely tension and texture. The polyester has a bit of a sheen to it that the light catches.

I used up a whole bunch of leftover binding pieces. I like the bright frame around the navy background. 


The backing is two chunks from stash. The pale floral is a cotton lawn, just so soft in hand and look. The darker paisley is one I'd bought years ago to fussy-cut for kaleidoscope quilts, but have never used it. I'm happy to report that both chunks are gone now. Neither was quite wide enough for the quilt so a little creative piecing ensued along the edges.
The rain stopped in mid-afternoon, but I was still battling the wind

Here's an outtake so you can see what I was up against!

I quilted my initials as per usual, in the bottom corner.


One or both of these will got to the Windsor Sexual Assault Centre. They haven't accepted quilts for two years, so I'm sure they'll be happy to have one or two again!

Here is the quilt, nice and flat, (and calm lol) being blocked on the design wall prior to taking it outside. 

You can see the large flower I quilted in each of the patchwork flowers.


Many thanks to Mari for hosting this on Sarah's behalf this year!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Whirling Petals (tutorial)
Size: 44.5" x 48.5"
Fabric: scraps and stash
Backing: as above
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 cotton/wool
Quilted: on Avril: 40 893 stitches
Threads: pieced with various; quilted with Isacord polyester

12 comments:

  1. I think quilting flowers inside the flowers was a great idea, and I love how it reads on the back of the quilt, too. Lovely!

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  2. I LOVE it!!!! Like you I'm trying to use up my stash, as in my Pop Stars quilt. I stitch pieces of batting together using a large zig-zag on the machine whilst keeping them butted together and also do some pretty wacky backs when I'm in the mood. I use Matilda's Own wool/cotton batting & love it to bits, especially as I've made many quilts for babies and children & am not sure about polyester for them.

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  3. What a fabulous way to put a dent in your scraps, including those last 6 - 18" or so of binding. The recipients of your work are in for a treat.

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  4. What's not to love about flowers, whether it's fabric or the lovely quilting!

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  5. I love this - everything about this. The floral petals and the dark blue background are just perfect. The pieced binding is another great bit of eye candy. Your quilting choice was just perfect. The quilts really do talk to you!

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  6. Hi Sandra, that's a really great little quilt and I love the FMQ. Please come by before Tuesday night to link up to Free Motion Mavericks! It's terribly quiet there now :-) Thanks!

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  7. Well, you know I love florals and setting them against the dark blue background really highlights the flowers. Then the flower motif inside the blocks adds so much. This quilt will be much appreciated by its recipient.
    Pat

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  8. Love them!! This is a great pattern. Thanks for linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday.

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  9. I love floral blocks and you've done this one justice! The navy background makes it all into a Wow! quilt.

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  10. Hi Sandra, thanks so much for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks. I'll be highlighting your quilt tomorrow :-) Take care.

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