Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Round & Round by ThimbleBlossom

**Full disclosure - this has been sitting here typed up for almost 3 weeks waiting for me to get good pictures. It never happened. Sorry! :)

I finished my quilts! Hurray!

I love the binding! It's my favorite part!

In fact, I finished them on day #1 of a 3 day trip . . . so I had nothing to do on my 8 hour drive home! How's that for underestimation?

Anyway, here is the finished quilt.

Its Round & Round by ThimbleBlossom. 

My Review: (remember, while I've been quilting for a long time, I'm not great at it. So my reviews are my opinions based on my sewing level, which is somewhere between beginner and intermediate. I call it Crappy Intermediate)

It's a great pattern! I love all of her stuff. Her quilts seem to be close enough to vintage that my grandmother appreciates them, but there's always a modern twist. There's always an impact, and I have received a WHOLE lot of complements on it! Especially from Miss A.

Her patterns are well written, but complex (at least to me). Honestly, I can't drink while piecing them. I chain pieced all of the HSTs, but when it came to the blocks I had to lay them out and sew them one at a time. I labeled each row and put them back on the design wall after every seam. And I STILL screwed up the placement of some of the stars. Each block took me about 45 minutes (early on it was over an hour). So it was real work for me, but, again, her pattern took me step by step. The only confusion was when I tried to expand it to king size . . . but that's pregnancy brain, not ThimbleBlossom ;)

All in all, I recommend her patterns, but not as something quick and easy. It's a project that you really have to want to do, but I'm so glad I used it for Miss A's big-girl quilt. It's something really special!

On her Big Girl Bed!


Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Round & Round by ThimbleBlossom
Top Fabrics: Some Kona gray (not sure which) and a TON of my scraps. As much purple and pink as I could stomach!
Backing Fabric: Doe by Carolyn Freelander in gray (108" baby!)
Binding Fabric: Widescreen by Carolyn Freelander in Orange (again, 108", but I had cut it up. So I couldn't use it for a back!)
Date Began: April 2014
Date Completed: January 22, 2016
Recipient: Miss A
Reason: Technically: Her 5th Birthday, but honestly, she needed a quilt for her bed that matched her room.
Pieced and Quilted by: Me!


I also finished my ThimbleBlossom Swap Mini. (see above, review is basically the same)

Front
Back





















Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Fireworks by ThimbleBlossom
Top Fabrics: Some Kona cream (not sure which) and Sky Ships and Bats in the Belfry in Plum from Tula Pink's Elizabeth Line
Backing Fabric: 16th Century Selfie in Plum from Tula Pink's Elizabeth Line (My dad thinks this is hilarious. He likes it better than the front)
Binding Fabric: Tudor Windows in Plum from Tula Pink's Elizabeth Line
Date Began: November 2015
Date Completed: January 22, 2016
Recipient: Can't tell you, it's a secret swap!
Reason: ThimbleBlossom Swap #2
Pieced and Quilted by: Me!

UFO's Down: 2 of 16. And onto the next one. I'm working on a King Size quilt from Cabin Fever by Natalia Bonner. It's my second quilt from her book, and I love it!

See ya!
EL

PS: I met Jackie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio at our DMQG meeting. My cool level just jumped, right? ;)
I don't know if you can tell, but I'm kind of freaking out here!