Q4 Finish #2 - Twirling #2

Be forewarned, this is a picture heavy post!!

This is my second finish on my Q4 FAL list for the Finish Along being hosted by Adrienne over at On the Windy Side. I finished this quilt last week. It is now at its new home. I'll admit it. I had a hard time handing this one over. I think it might be my favorite quilt to date. I had a total blast quilting this quilt. Yes, I quilted it to death but it went surprisingly fast. Very little marking (only the feather spines) and flying by the seat of my pants mostly ;)

In my post about the finished flimsy, I mentioned a mistake and asked if you could find it. . . have a look again, can you find it? Yup, it's still there. . .

The texture. . . Awesome! I swear this quilt is square. . . I obviously need to do some work on getting my photographs to show that!

I used the same thread in the color spiral. King Tut Lapis. I chose a darker thread because I wanted those lighter colors to show a little darker. who knew finding lavender/lighter purples would be such a challenge!

The thread in the gray spiral is Aurifil Poly in French Lilac. The corner design is a portion of a stencil. I used it in all four corners but in the bigger corners chose to use just a portion of the stencil and then fill it with feathers, spirals and paisleys. YLI 40 wt cotton in Plum was used for the larger corners.

This smaller corner is the entire stencil design with some echos.

I could not stop running my hands over this quilt!!

And I obviously couldn't stop snapping pictures either!!

In the gray, I just did a gentle curve alternating directions in the triangles. I had no idea when I started this design how effective it would be! And it was QUICK to quilt - always a bonus! :)

The color portions got feathers, spirals and paisleys. I did mark the spines using my small curved quilting ruler.

I was kinda just digging the way this feather curved around the corner :)

Another full shot for good measure. Did you find the mistake yet?

And the backing. Prisms by Studio E.

That piecing mistake. . . Here's the story. The flimsy hung on my design wall for almost a week before I started quilting. Did I (or my QA dept head, otherwise known as my husband) notice the mistake? No. I didn't notice it until I had quilted over it!! It is there, in the darkest ring on the bottom right. Two purple triangles together. . . I can't even type what came out of my mouth when the realization hit. And the sinking feeling. At this point that portion of the quilt was completely quilted (including ditch stitched) except for the gray solid corner. I stared a long time and emailed a couple trusted quilty friends, Sandra and Yvonne, and asked for their opinions about pulling out the seam ripper or leaving it. After much deliberation, I decided it would be OK if left. BUT, only if my client agreed. I happened to be meeting her for lunch that day. We talked. I showed her the picture. She couldn't find the mistake initially. And then said, do not rip it out. Not going to lie, when I got home, I almost broke out the seam ripper anyway. . . and then the reality set in. . . ripping it out would be a pain, no question. What was questionable was, how is the quilting going to look . . . would I be able to blend it in and make it look like I had not taken stitches back to a spot and then started again. In the end, I decided that the disaster this could become was much greater than the current status of the quilt. So I left it in and after quilting, I think it might be even a little less noticeable :) It's OK, lie to me and tell me you can't see it ;) haha

My client decided she wanted a matching pillow. Yup, I can do that and I have become more than a little smitten with making pillow/cushion covers :) I was going to do a miniature version of the quilt and my head started hurting at the thought of trying to figure out the math AND the thought of working with miniature HSTs. . . that idea was sidelined quickly! Remember those extra squares I cut? Some of them turned into this:

LOVE!! :D Those center squares are 1" finished. YIKES! I have a new respect for all of you quilters out there working and loving piecing with miniature pieces of fabric!

I'm delivering the pillow cover today. I will be sad. Every time I walk by it I have to pet it. It makes me smile :)

So that concludes the show and tell portion of this post :) Item #3 on my FAL list is currently under the needle :) Stay tuned, I'll share the flimsy in a few days. Quilting is going to take a bit. . . You know I couldn't keep it simple ;)

Linking up with Finish it up Friday and with the FAL linky party over at Adrienne's when it goes live :)

Until next time, keep on quilting!!