Sugar and Spice - a finished quilt -

Yesterday I finished my Sugar and Spice quilt and I couldn't wait to share the pictures with you but by the time I had the last threads tied and buried in the quilt it was to dark. Luckily I have another week holiday this week so I took some photos this morning.
Prepare yourselves for an flood of photos.

First the top and back. The front you have already seen when I was constructing it but to recap this is made of half square triangles from the Sugar and Spice fabric collection from the Quilted Fish. The white halfs of the triangles are made from Kona white.

The colours of the collection I particularly loved where the green, aqua and red. I wasn't that fond of the softer pink parts and kept these to a minimum in the quilt.

For the back I used Kona Ash for the first time and am rather pleased how it offsets the two pieced strips I incorprated in the back. I quilted in straight lines along the squares thereby emphasising the pattern. I love how this shows most visible on the back of the quilt.

I infact was so fond of the squeeky fresh green that I decided to make that a feature of the binding and luckily my local quilt shop Tiki had just what the doctor prescribed. Look at that wonderful stripy green. Doesn't it remind you granny apples ? (Mind, I am more a breaburn kind of apple girl than a granny one come to think of it....).

The binding offsets the front and back perfect in my opinion and works so well with the Kona Ash.
I also changed my binding technique a bit. If you are a regular reader you probably know that I mostly machine stitch my bindings rather than machine stitch the binding onto the front and than handstitch it onto the back. I do this for several reasons. It saves time, doesn't kill my wrist and I think it looks really good. Normally I sew the binding onto the front and then fold it over to the back and then stitch it onto the back ensuring that the stitch line on the front is close to the binding. Recently I saw on a blog (sorry can't remember who) that it was done the other way around. So I tried it and must say I rather like the look of it and I find it easier on the whole.

And one can't go without a couple of lovely rolls.....

 And here the stats for anybody who is interested:

Size: 61 x 61 inches (1.55 m x 1.55 m)
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 100% cotton
Quilting thread: Gutermann Sulky 30 in offwhite colour no 1071
HST: cut 72, 6 inch squares of patterned fabric and the same number of contrasting solid fabric
Binding: Sis Boom basics by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit bought at Tikki Ltd. in Kew (but I bought it all ...sorry)

Previous listings can be found here, here, here and here.

The quilt can be found in my ETSY store. Sold

Sugar and Spice - part 2-

Before I report on the progress of  'Sugar and Spice' I wanted to say that I am at the Quiltfestival in Brimingham this Thursday. If any of you are there too and would like to meet up then please let me know. I would love to.

And now to the progress report. After I cut a large number of HSTs I started to think about possible layouts.

First I tried the mosaic block from the Summer Sample Series. But I think the individual HST squares are to big for this and I don't want the quilt to be to large. I only would have 4 mosaic blocks in a row within the size range I have in mind for this quilt which I believe isn't very effective.

On to the next possible layout. I rearranged the squares and ended up with this sort of square in a squares ensemble but again the quilt would have to become large for the patterns to work but I really really like the look of this so....

... I rearranged the blocks a bit more and came up with this which is exactly what I want except that I have to make more HSTs...........big sigh........

Stash Note No 11

Look what fluttered into my house this week ! Can you see what it is ?

Maybe from upfront ? No still not ?

Well here are the 24 fat quarters spread out. It is Sugar and Spice from the Quilted Fish bought at The SewSweetShoppe via Etsy. I have seen this fabric on all sorts of on-line shops popping up over the past weeks and was often very close to ordering it and then I didn't for some reason. But in the end I did and how happy I am. This is wonderful fabric and the colours are so bright and the patterns are versatile and bold.
Lovely.