My Dream Quilt: Flea Market Fancy is done!

Here she is! And she's mine all mine! I can't even begin to tell you how much I am in love.

The quilt is a great throw sized, roughly 60x75. I used just about every Flea Market Fancy print made, only a few are missing (like yellow barbells!) The sashing and back are just good old Kona cotton white and I used the brown tulip tiles to bind by hand (I don't think I'll be attempting machine binding again very soon). I started the quilt back in August or September with the Old Red Barn Co quilt along, but only now just finished due to holiday madness. John aka Quiltdad did such a great job leading us all through the process of wonky log cabins. I learned so much.

One thing I must now sing the praises of is quilt basting spray. This stuff really works! For some reason I think I was against using it - I just really wanted to figure out how to baste properly the old fashioned way. But I was soooo desperate for this quilt to turn out perfectly, and after wrestling my last quilt (queen-sized) I was willing to try anything. I will now NEVER go back to just pins. I have also been a bit lazy about taping the entire back to the floor before laying the batting. I now know how important it is to go through every little step.

I also picked up Color Grabber at my local Hancock's Fabrics, which pulls any excess dye out of the water while washing. It worked like a charm and is only five bucks for about 30 washes.

Here is the back:

I had to add this little patchwork strip because my back was too short. I was really irritated I had to add it at first but now I love it.

At least we got a tiny ray of sun so I could take some okay shots, even if they are with the old camera (still missing the bloody charging cords to the new Canon!)

It is pretty hard to get a non-blurry shot of a very busy 8 month old!

I hope this can help inspire some of you fabric hoarders (you know who you are!) to get cutting on your beautiful Flea Market Fancy fabrics. They truly are better outside of the sewing room!

Quick Sneak Peek: My Dream Flea Market Fancy Quilt!!!

Remember these guys?

I started this quilt waaaaay back in September with the Old Red Barn Co. quilt along. Well, life -the holidays, taking care of Lucy, trying to get my butt to the gym and my mom's Christmas quilt all got in the way. So with the new year, I decided there was no better way to get started than to get back on this project.

Here is a look at our kitchen table/sewing room yesterday:

I really couldn't wait to show you a little peek. I just finished the top and snapped a pic. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this. It is now after 11:30 PM so I had better get to bed but I can't wait to get started on the backing tomorrow!

Zig Zag Quilt completed!

Yay! My zig zag for the Old Red Barn Co. quilt along is finally quilted and bound. Now I just need to learn how to take a decent picture of it! I apologize for this one, but I took about a hundred and none of them were any good. I think quilts are pretty hard to photograph anyways, and this one in particular is just SO much prettier in person. I think because the prints are so delicate it is hard to get a good idea of how lovely they are in the photos. The fabric is from the My Folklore collection by the Japanese manufacturer Lecien.

This is my first completed quilt. I have about five other works-in-progress and about fifty others planned in my head but it is so satisfying to have made one beginning to end. It is a throw size and it will live over the back of a chair in our bedroom for now.

Here is Lucy chillin' on the new quilt. I think you can see the fabrics better in this one

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And I thought I would give you a little peek at what I am working on for Round 3 of the quilt along - Wonky Log Cabins. I'm sure I don't need to express the thrill and sheer joy of cutting into all this Flea Market Fancy goodness! Most of the prints came from the jelly rolls mentioned in a previous post (Aka biggest fabric score of the year) and I am also cutting into some of my yardage as well. Such a beautiful collection I think deserves a quilt all it's own. I am having a ball making these since I am not such an accurate person and accuracy is unneeded in the making of these blocks.

It's not too late to jump into Round 3, just click on the quilt along button to the left and follow the links to Quiltdad.