Off Course, A Flimsy Finish!

Hellowee!! :) Man, have I been busy! But before I get to that, you have to check this out! Kathleen, over at Kathleen Quilts, put out a call to quilters who have tops and want ideas for quilting to send her a picture of the top and she would post ideas for quilting on Fridays.  I don't even remember how I found her blog but she does AMAZING quilting and I just had to know how she would have quilted Spin :) There is likely a Spin 2 in my near future and while I was quilting it, I had several ideas pop into my head.  Check out her ideas for quilting Spin (and then be sure come back, I have so much more to share, haha)! How cool is that?? Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with how Spin turned out (except for the ripply binding but we'll discuss that later) but I always think it is so cool to see another person's take on quilting. Her take is nothing short of amazing :) If you are looking for a take on how to quilt your top, head over and submit yours and let Kathleen work her magic!

On to Off Course. . . Remember this rendition?

I decided I wanted the geese to be wonky.  And then I tweaked the color gradation based on the beautiful New Colorshott Oakshott cottons that I ordered directly from the Oakshott web site. People, these fabrics are DELISH to look at and absolutely a DREAM to work with!! LOVE LOVE LOVE! And Michael is absolutely wonderful. The customer service is nothing short of amazing. OK, I'll stop, I'm gushing.

The big question became, how do I get those geese to go wonky. . . I tried paper piecing. WAY too much waste when using this precious fabric! Then I tried improv. . . not as much waste but I was not coming up with any kind of consistency in the blocks. Then I thought, what if I use templates?? Voila we have a winner!! I drew out the blocks on a piece of grid paper that was 9.5 x 9.5 (I found really cool grid easel pads on Amazon and cut a few lot of squares and drew out the triangles until I had two different blocks.  Then I cut the fabric into strips, cut the templates out with a half inch seam allowance and went to town chain piecing.  I was so into the process, I didn't take one picture :( If there is interest, I would be more than happy to whip out a few more and write a tutorial.  Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures. I swear I ironed it and some pictures are better than others because the wind was blowing just enough :)

See, Looks Wrinkly and the seams look puckered. I can assure you they are not. I'm pretty sure that this is the straightest, squarest quilt I have ever made! Rosanne is amazing when it comes to 1/4" seams! 

I pieced the negative space in strips instead of blocks. This part of cutting and piecing took about an hour and a half - from cutting to finished top! Gotta LOVE that :)

The wind is starting to pick up but I love how this picture really shows off those purples and blues :)
 

And now the wind is really picking up and I caught this picture where you can really see the different colors in the blues and purples depending on the angle. This fabric is fabulous!

 Another wind shot.

Another without wind and looking rather wrinkly. . . it's the sun, really ;)

 Really we're almost done here :D

Last one I promise! haha

I'm very happy with how this top turned out! What I'm not happy about is that my local source for wool batting has dried up and they were not very convincing about when they might get more. So, being the impulsive person I am I ordered it on line. . . and then I got to thinking. I use a lot of batting. . . I always use wool. . . I need a roll :D So I set off to find me a roll of batting. And wouldn't you know - I found one! Even better, I found it ON SALE!! YAY All I can tell you is that the price is right. I bought it at Quiltbug.com. I've never shopped at this store before (yes, there are a few online shops that I might not have heard of!!) so I can't attest to anything about it at this time except that they were having a 20% off sale and that turned out to be about 3-4 bucks a yard savings over other sites that carry it! WIN I have gone a little off course (did you catch that? HA) but the bottom line is that I'm not going to be able to start quilting Off Course until next week.  Although this saddens me, I am doodling like crazy to prepare for when the quilting commences!

And I might have started another quilt. . . maybe. . . 

OK, for those of you still hanging out, THANKS! On to my little problem with the binding on Spin. . . The quilt was flat as a pancake before I sewed on the binding. It is no longer flat, it is rippled around the edges. It is the binding and I know I am going to take it off. . . yes, there are very off color words I would like to type here but I won't. You can bet they have been said though! Any thoughts on what might have caused this would be greatly appreciated. I haven't posted the finish pictures because well, the pictures make me sad :( well, and I'll be honest, I haven't written the post yet either. . . 

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday. 

Until next time, keep on quilting!