Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tesselated (Connected) Leaves

I had such a fun time making this little quilt! You can read about the inspiration for this project here. I surely wasn't looking for a new project, having hundreds, maybe thousands of projects in various stages of unfinishedness! However, sometimes an idea just won't leave me alone, so I whipped up this little fall quilt using the Connecting Corners technique. (You can see some of my other Connected quilts here.) I just love using this technique and if I see a quilt pattern where it could be used, I will try it out! I fiddled around with block sizes, making the first few out of proportion, until I figured out the correct measurements for constructing a 1 1/2" block.
I pieced the top and added a border of fall fabric that my husband brought back from Vermont when he briefly visited this year. I wanted him to know how much I love it when he brings me fabric and so I used it in the first quilt I could!
Then I started the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting and had about 1/4 of the quilting finished when I noticed a mistake! See how the piece that the seam ripper is pointing to is the wrong colour...it should be green!
What's a quilter to do? Would you leave it there? Would you hope that no one noticed? I berated myself for a bit, wondering how on earth I didn't see that before I started the quilting!!! But I just knew that would always bug me, and I would see it every time I looked at the quilt, so I had to fix it.
I picked out part of the quilting, folded the quilt top back, and frog stitched that offending piece. On the right is the quilt top with the new hole applied! Then I sewed on a green corner, resewed the seams, and continued on with the quilting!
And then I decided that there wasn't enough definition between the leaves section and the border, so I stitched on some bias seam binding strips I found in my cupboard and liked it much better.
Happy Thanksgiving to my American blog readers! One of my dearest friends is a transplanted American and she is inviting a bunch of her friends over to celebrate her holiday traditions tomorrow. We had our turkey day in October, so I am looking forward another one with her! I found this interesting recipe (from reading Judy's blog) and I'm going to make some to take tomorrow...nothing like trying a new recipe out on your friends!

8 comments:

Paula, the quilter said...

Every time I see this pattern I think about making one because I love it so. Yours is especially beautiful.

Gina said...

It's great. Enjoy your time with your friend

Love and hugs Gina xxx

The Calico Quilter said...

What a charming little quilt! You're right, the little inside border does set it off nicely.

That's a pattern I have experience with - and did the same mistake, too. I made a mini one a few years ago from flannel. It is about half hand quilted but the flannel was so hard to needle because of the fabric thickness (the Moda flannel was VERY fluffy) I shelved it and haven't completed the job. I was inspried by one in a quilt shop, and since this was before the pervasive digital camera or camera/phone, I pulled out my sketch pad and laboriously drew how to put it together (too cheap to buy a pattern!).

Amy said...

very pretty, thank you for sharing, Happy Thanksgiving, Amy

Libby said...

Enjoy your 'bonus' Thanksgiving!

Cindy Larson said...

I just LOVE these leaves you did! They are beautiful :0) Love the border fabric too. Nice job!

Jean said...

This is so pretty. I would have to make it about 10 x bigger though...lol...I like minis but haven't tried one that small. You do a great job with them. How big is this one?

Dionne said...

I love the tesselating leaves! Such a wonderful pattern. It's one I haven't the energy to attempt just yet though. I'll just live vicariously through you!
Cheers,
Dionne