Finally a quilt!

May I introduce to you...

X Marks the Spot!

This quilt was for my little sister for Christmas, but was just pieced and basted to give to her Christmas morning. So I guess technically this means it's my first finish of 2013?

I actually had planned to make the entire quilt out of the HST blocks, with some white sashing in between them. And I made hundreds upon hundreds of HSTs. But then I liked the minimalist approach better!

When it came to quilting I had thought I'd have to do some heavy straight-line quilting because I was using my mom's machine, which didn't have a darning foot. On a whim I decided to try the feet from my Singer, and lo and behold, they fit! 

So I busted out some free-motion swirls in the white space.

It took only halfway to forever to quilt, but it was actually really fun to do. But you want to hear a secret? I totally broke what's probably a big quilting rule...I used hand-quilting thread for part of the quilting. I ran out of white thread the night before Robyn was supposed to return to school, and went searching through my supplies for another spool. All I had was the hand-quilting thread, and I thought I'd have enough to finish. Spoiler alert: I didn't.

In case you're wondering, the hand-quilting thread was stiffer right after quilting [and I did have to change my machine's tension], but it softened up after washing.

I pieced together this light blue flannel from Joann from the back so that it would be extra snuggly - Robyn gets cold like me! Also, it was much cheaper this way. So even though I actually prefer a pieced back, this worked out better in this instance.

The binding is a print from Ty Pennington's Impressions line, and wasn't even one of my original binding choices. I just happened to pick it up when I was stumbling over the mess in my sewing room. Plus, I made enough to bind around the world once or twice, so I have enough for a whole other quilt after finishing this one! And thank goodness, because I hate making binding.

All the pictures above are before washing, so that I could catch the last of the light, but after washing...

Holy crinkles Batman! The texture is out of this world.

I added a label post-washing...

 

...and called it a day!

Stats:
Finished size: 58 x 70"
Quilting: Free motion swirls, done by me on my home machine
Fabrics: Kona White, RK Metro Circles, Children at Play Dots, RK Metro Lattice, Moda Pez, Amy Butler Full Moon Dots, AMH Field Study, Lizzy House Castle Peeps, Jeanean Morrison Silent Cinema, Oval Elements, Joel Dewberry Herringbone, Fig Tree California Girl, Moda Crossweaves, some orange and blue Kona solids, etc
Binding: Ty Pennington Impressions


*Linked up at Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story!