Finished Double Hourglass Quilt

Hooray, it is finished!

This quilting turned out great and went together so fast!

The zig-zag fabric ended up being amazing for the binding.  This picture shows a close up of the little flowers in the center of the blocks. I thought the brown stitching might be too much, but it turned out to be a great change from white thread.

And no rumples or ripples to speak of! Hooray!

This one is all ready to be raffled off to support literacy!

I"ll be linking up with ALYoF March Finishes party when it opens up! I'm SO happy to have gotten this goal done early!

Don't forget to check out the Quilter's Choice QAL!

Stats:
Size: 66 by 88 inches
Quilting: FMQ straight lines with four leaf flowers
Fabric: Mostly from Joann -- it's been in my stash for-ev-errrrr!

WIP Wednesday: Some Quick Quilting

When I was doing my normal "what am I going to post about this week" I was planning that my WIP Wednesday post would be some in-progress shots of the quilting on my Double Hourglass Quilt.

Wrong. And not in the way that you might think -- I managed to get the quilting on this baby done in less than one day! It still needs to be bound -- machine bound, most definitely -- but I'm still kind of in shock that it is done -- and that I only used 3 bobbins to do the whole thing!

I apologize for the indoor-with-flash-because-its-dark pictures. The sun isn't going to come out today either, boo!

My quilting motif was to FMQ straight lines lined up with the centers of the blocks (through the X of the block) and when I got to the center of each block I made a little four petaled flower in the inner 4 triangles. I used the triangles to help "size" my loops but not all of them are perfectly straight or perfectly sized -- they did get much better as I went along! I then went back and made straight lines perpendicularly through the blocks. I did these lines with my free motion foot as well. 

Here's the zig-zag back! I didn't match up the zig-zags (oh, the horror!) because this one is getting donated to raffle it off I can live with that.

Here's a close up of the quilting on the back:

Now to get started on that binding!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced! Don't forget to check out the first block in the Quilter's Choice Quilt along and to vote for your choice for Block #2!

March ALYoF Goal: Double Hourglass Quilt

My March ALYoF goal is to quilt and finish the twin sized double hourglass quilt that I will be donating to raffle off to raise money for literacy via Read Lead Achieve!

Right now all of the blocks of the quilt are together and waiting for me to add the border and quilt it.

The orange floral fabric is for the borders (and maybe the binding too) and the zig zag stripe is for the backing. Woo hoo for buying 5 yards of fabric at a time. I plan to quilt it with brown thread and some sort of simple curvy motif. Haven't yet decided what I'll do, but nothing too dense!

Linking up at this month's ALYoF party and WIP Wednesday!

Don't forget to enter our QCQAL kick off giveaway!

Happy Hour {Double Hourglasses}

I love to strip piece and I had been stashing two mini jelly rolls in aqua and orange. My mom gave me the two that she had that were the same so I had enough to make a twin sized quilt.

I decided to use Allison's double hourglass tutorial as inspiration for these blocks and went through a pattern of sewing and cutting and sewing again until all the strips were turned into blocks!

Here's when I had finished 50 of the 80 total blocks:

Once I finished all 80 blocks I separated the blocks into 4 piles and made identical "quadrants" for the upper left lower right corners of the quilt. I've spent HOURS on some quilts making the blocks "random" and I just don't have the time or patience to do that anymore. If someone realizes that the sections repeat, I will give them a prize. 

Here's a picture with really terrible lighting:

The other two sections I put together individually without matching because it was easier to make sure that the same colors weren't next to one another or all in a cluster.

Here's 80 blocks all sewn together!

The top is the right width for a twin sized quilt but it is a touch on the short side so I will need to add a top and bottom border to get it to the correct size. 

Once this quilt is finished, I am going to donate it to the sorority I advise to raffle off to raise money for our literacy philanthropy. It's about time I put my quilting addition to good use!

Sharing over at Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, and WIP Wednesday!