Postcard from Sweden Shines Again

My fourth Postcard from Sweden quilt is finished! 

This baby’s mine, all mine. 

My quilt and I went for a quilt in the wild shoot this morning at Seacliff Beach in Leamington which is a mere ten minute drive from my house. I am blessed to have this beautiful spot so near.

I made my first Postcard from Sweden quilt in April 2018 in a Quilt Along that I, along with my friend Helen in Ireland (@helencdoesthings) hosted. I loved my quilt and was happy so many had joined in and many more were watching, and commenting… One of the commenters was Casey, Dayna‘s sister-in-law who absolutely loved the quilt. She had been a good support during Dayna’s wedding in November, and, in an effort to be more generous and less grasping onto possessions, I ended up giving it to her in January 2019. She decorated her daughter’s room around the quilt! It makes me so happy that it has such a happy home.

Aliviana during a family photo shoot - and yes! The quilt was a part of it!

In 2022 Tracie of Joyfully Tracie convinced me to host another Quilt Along, and so I made a second quilt that I supplemented with a few pieces I bought and a few I substituted. This one was going to be for me!

Well, my niece Sheila fell in love with it and begged me to let her buy it… and I eventually relented, with the condition that I use some of the money to buy a kit to make another for me. I bought the kit from Mad About Patchwork, who has them on sale for a great price right now, (no affiliation). Great garage sale going on there as well, call me the great mmm-nabler😉 If you make the throw size, you can get two quilts from the kit; however, you do have to supplement and substitute a little bit for a few colours.

Sometime after I bought the kit, Sheila told me how much her elder, Dusty, LOVED her quilt. Every time he visited, he would comment on The colours, and he often petted it! Well, I decided there and then that one of the two quilts I’d make from the kit would go to him. So in November when I was looking after my grand cat in Tennessee up the two tops. I finished up Dusty’s in January 2024.

Both Dusty’s and Sheila’s have the same fabulous backing fabric, Smashing Atoms from Connecting Threads (affiliate link). I should interrupt this story to let you know that they have an amazing sale on right now on yardage of wide backs. Look at this one! Wouldn't it be perfect for this quilt? Or any rainbow quilt for that matter...

I should also let you know that all but one, the very first one I bought from them quite a few years ago are wonderful, soft cotton fabrics. 

So finally here we are in August and I have my postcard quilt finished!

The early morning sun was perfect for showing off the texture. Like Sheila’s, which was inspired by Tracie’s, I did dot-to-dot with some added motifs inside the elongated diamonds. 

I did a curving line, a swooping diamond and a swirl with a wavy line, similar to Sheila’s. I hit upon fat daisies for the fourth element. 

My initials went into the lower corner on an angle when I got to the bottom and realized I forgotten to put them into one of the elongated diamonds. It’s all good. I used the same two Aurifil threads that I used for all three of the others. The variegated has maybe two or 3 metres left. I am always amazed by how the orange and yellow variegated sinks into all the colours.

Here is the back, the last of the one I used on the first PfS, Aliviana’s quilt, supplemented with a chunk left over from Spring Sparkles, my Luminous Layers QAL quilt. Gosh, I love high chain-link fence for straight on quilt shots! This is at the new basketball courts at the beach.

 

And the label. Yes it’s an octopus! They are the most amazing creatures. I had hesitated to use these labels that were in a really unusual labels yardage chunk I had bought a few years ago, but then I read two incredible books as well as watched a Netflix show on octopuses/octopi/octopods (check this good article on the plural) and I would dearly love to make friends with one now I know what intelligent beings they truly are.

The first two quilts got china blue solid from Paintbrush Studios as binding which I absolutely love, Dusty’s got a black and white math binding, and I was going to go with a turquoise binding, but then saw this Free Spirit stripe that I’d picked up a while ago for binding a quilt down the road and I thought it was perfect!

I’ll be washing this up and maybe taking it back to another beach along Lake Erie’s shore on Saturday when I am once again teaching a Yin yoga class at Sprucewood Shores Estate winery!

Our tropical oasis, envisioned by MacGyver with input from moi

Quilt Stats:

Size: 48”x 60" 
Fabric: Kona cotton by Robert Kaufman

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 80/20% cotton/polyester

Backing: Prisms by Studio E Fabrics, and Stonehenge Gradations by Northcott Fabrics

Quilted: on Avril 63 852 stitches

Threads: pieced on Tillie, my 1951 Featherweight with Gütermann 100% cotton; quilted with Aurifil 100% cotton, Bottom Line in the bobbin

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