Sunshine Quilt

 

 
The quilt for our school’s auction is done. It turned out really pretty I think. Hopefully it will feel very Spring-like displayed at the auction next month. 

 
I used the orange palette from Denyse Schmidt’s Katie Jump Rope fabric collection when I began this because I loved all these prints best when they were together this way. I had always wanted to try this Hope Skip, Jump pattern (in Denyse’s book), so that’s how it began. I finished it, then folded it up and promptly forgot about it. Not that I didn’t like it, but I tend to be impulsive creatively, so I’m sure I went on to something else that excited me even more.

When I pulled it out recently to finish it for our auction, I wanted to try tying it instead of quilting it. I’ve never tied a quilt, but we have a rather old one that was tied and it holds up so well, I was intrigued. Then one day at school I talked with another quilter who ties all her quilts. Hmm… Thinking the ties might add some nice texture on the quilt’s surface I decided to try it. I created a 4″ x 4″ grid and used cream pearl cotton (next time I might use wool and let it felt into a ball in the wash). Overall, the effect is nice, and it feels sturdy.

I chose a pale gray for the backing and the binding to give it a modern feel. This is definitely a sofa, “throw” sized quilt, it will need to look nice on a sofa.

My binding gets better every time. I’m now in the “one quilt down, let’s start a new one” phase.
But first, my assistance was needed on the Valentine-making. It was quite easy this year, as I mentioned. Neither kid wants sappy sweet sentiments on their Valentines, so I found some super cute printable ones on etsy, and the kids loved them. And hey, we did make the chocolate, so these are kind of homemade right?