I started this quilt way back in August, completely on a whim, deciding one evening to just dig into my scrap baskets and making some improv pieced blocks. I had no real plan for the blocks, I didn't even know if they would ever become something useful, but since they were fun to make I didn't mind :).
I did like the blocks though. I liked them a lot, which meant they totally needed to become a quilt. I used lots of low volume scraps to join them into one continuous patchwork and then I got stuck. My patchwork was not big enough for the lap sized quilt I was going for, and I didn't feel like making more blocks, so I set it aside for a while to have time to think. (I don't do this very often as I usually want to finish my projects right away and I'm glad I forced myself to be patient and took time to think over what the next step should be)
At the end I added scrappy low volume borders and brought the size of the quilt to 51" x 68". I wanted to keep this quilt for our home, so I went with minky backing as that's the only kind of quilts my kids like. I can't really blame them, minky makes for such super soft and snuggly quilts.
I did an overall straight line quilting about 1" apart to bring all the scrappy goodness into one cohesive quilt. And, I didn't even have to mark my lines. I actually flipped the quilt sandwich minky side up and used minky chevron pattern as my quilting guide. Worked like a charm.
Now, I've always been a huge fan of Mary's beautiful quilts where she combines machine and hand quilting, so I decided it was finally time I gave it a try. I did a few random lines along the width of the quilt and I couldn't be happier with the result.
Red and white striped binding seemed like an obvious choice, so I didn't fight the obvious and went with it. Such a bright, happy way to frame all the scrappy goodness.
Thanks for reading. Svetlana