Swirls and Twirls

 

Seriously, where did this week go??? I can't believe that it has been a week since my last post! On one hand I don't feel like much has happened that was worthy of sharing on a post but on the other hand, whew, the days are just jam-packed and fly by! I decided that I'd share my most recent quilt project with you even though it isn't totally finished. It still has to be quilted. That is the weird thing about making quilts... when you get to this point and you have this wonderful, beautiful (my opinion) quilt top that you have spent hours and hours putting together and then you realize that you are actually only half way finished because you still have to spend many more hours and hours quilting it together... I have to stop and relish the part that is completed and not think about what still will need to be completed.

I began this quilt at a class I took last fall from a very talented quilt designer and teacher named Karen Stone. She makes the most wild, colorful, unique quilts and I have admired her work for years. When I got the chance to actually take a class from her, I was thrilled. Her class was so delightful and she was so low key and easy going and positive and encouraging. It made for a really great experience and now to have this quilt as the results of that enjoyable experience makes it just that much more meaningful.

Each block has been sewn on a paper background and then when all the blocks were put together, the paper is carefully removed. It is quite a fragile top and it will need to be machine quilted to give it stability so all those spirals don't come undone. Karen Stone named her quilt "The Happy Rick Rack Quilt" because she sewed multiple colors of rick rack all around her spirals but I didn't choose to use rick rack so I just used the same piece of braided trim to embellish all of my swirls. The whole top measures 54" x 61" so it will be a wall hanging. I still need to put together the backer fabric. I'm going to use all the leftover pieces from the front and sew them together in random sizes. That is what I have been doing on most of my quilts lately and I like having a "show and tell" on the back as well.
Now I just need to find a couple of hours to get the back put together and get it to my machine quilter and then I can focus on where I want to hang it in my house!