I’m pleased to say that my sewing mojo has been reappearing over the last few months and I’ve finished a number of garments and other projects. I’m on a self-imposed mission to finish up all the many half-completed blog posts I have here and try and catch up on the last few years of life! It’s tough when you get behind on a diary or blog, because it’s hard to know how to re-enter, but I figure I’ll just jump in. First up – a quilt I finished right at the end of 2021 and just before we started the moving process:

January 2022

It’s funny how out of order these quilts end up. This is one of the more recent quilts I made, as a gift, and because of the nature of gift deadlines, plus the fact that it’s a small baby quilt, I finished it up as a priority. I have at least 4 other quilts that are either close to finished or halfway through that I started before this one, but I guess the date you bind it is the date it’s officially completed, so here we are.

I’ve been admiring various versions of the Deco Quilt by Lo & Behold Stitchery since I first spied the pattern. Their pattern cover quilt is soooo pretty and I always had it at the back of my mind. Then I spotted that Brittany from Lo & Behold was going to run a Deco Quilt quiltalong (QAL) and I’d never participated in one. As you will know if you read this blog regularly, I like to get social with my sewing, so it seemed rather appealing. The only thing stopping me was that I was already working on several large quilts and didn’t want to start another. Then I remembered that my neighbour was due to give birth imminently and realised that a baby quilt would be a great little project. I signed up!

I’m enjoying trying all sorts of different quilts. It’s absolutely in line with my personality; I’ve been reading recently about the differences between a “process” crafter and a “product” crafter. Of course it’s not black and white – you can be a bit of both – but I am most certainly a process crafter. I love the planning and the learning and the process. I like experimenting and trying different things. I like the end product as well, of course, but it’s not my main focus at all. I guess that’s why I rarely make the same thing twice, whereas some of my “product” sewing friends will perfect a pattern and then make 8 of them, because that’s what delights them.

Even though I haven’t completely some of finished them, I’ve worked on simple patchwork, triangles, traditional blocks, modern blocks/piecing, foundation paper piecing and colour experimentation quilts. Right now I’m finishing up a mini quilt with circles for the first time. I love trying out different methods, even if the resulting quilt is not 100% in tune with my “taste”, in terms of colour and/or style. But then I usually know someone who will appreciate it, so it makes a nice gift!

The Deco Quilt was a really fun one to make and although, yes, I know baby girls don’t automatically need to be assigned “pink” quilts, it’s not something I ever sew, so I really had a ball picking colours and making something more classically feminine than my own personal preferences. I feel like the modern design and contrasting pinks still keep it fairly fresh looking in any case. I used a mix of Moda Bella solids and not the RSS Speckle in the picture as it didn’t really work in the end. I also went through a few little colouring-in exercises to figure out what I wanted – you can see the final one below.

The quilt is a really clever design and comprises three different blocks, none of which I had tried before and which were delightful to put together as I learned a couple of new techniques. The first is a log cabin block with a beautiful diamond in the centre and it was important to be precise with the measuring and sewing.

The second block was the complicated looking chandelier effect on the outer centre and this was achieved by strip piecing, which I’d heard about, but never used. It involves sewing together sewing long strips of the colours you need and then slicing them up into the little pieces for the block, much like if you’re making sausage rolls. Yum, sausage rolls…

The last block was a little bit of both, using both methods. Then the quilt top was assembled and the design achieved by creating rows at an angle, so that all the blocks are diamond-shaped when looking from the right side. So satisfying to see the design emerge!

I did have a bit of a “learning moment” when I realised I’d pieced some of the strip blocks together incorrectly and spent a fair amount of time with my seam-ripper to fix the issue.

Finally I got the quilt sandwiched and decided to go with a nice simple straight-lined quilting pattern, before binding with one of the pinks. I pieced some of my leftovers onto the back for a bit of fun and loved the finished result. I washed it once completed since it’s a baby quilt and got this ripply effect upon drying, which people assure me is quite desirable. Well, the baby ain’t going to care either way!

Fun project and let’s see if a larger adult one is in my future…