“Sake Bomb” Quilt Finish

Happy Friday morning everyone!  I can’t believe it’s going to get up to 65-degrees here today in Wisconsin!  I am excited to share with you my latest quilt finish. I even managed to finish this quilt DURING apple season which is basically unheard of! This quilt “Sake Bomb” was created as a result of Modern Quilts Unlimited “Everything Old is New Again Block and Quilt Challenge.”  You have all watch my blocks progress throughout the last year and know I’ve been having a lot of fun with this.  The “print” fabric I’ve been using is a Michael Miller panel called “Asian Tea Time.”  Mixing that panel with Michael Miller Couture Cotton solids has created a unique, eye catching quilt.  For the final setting I added in a 3-inch sashing strip to each row of 12-inch blocks.  The reason behind this is partially because I had some 3.5” sections left over from piecing the blocks in the quilt … I thought it would be a good idea to use them up.  I then added horizontal sashing going from smallest at the top to largest at the bottom.  I used whatever I had left of my solids left to make this work.  My favorite block was actually the drunkard’s path.  If you remember – I hate piecing curves to to tweak this block I appliqued raw edge circles to mimic the design/seams that come from the Drunkard’s path.  I needed something that would help bring this piece “together” so I decided to applique more raw edge circles and half circles onto the entire quilt.  I am so in love with the final results of this decision!  I think the hardest part was stopping myself and not going overboard with the circles! Once the top was done it was time to quilt!  Now I had put a bunch of flanges in the blocks of the quilts.  I don’t do this too often. I usually save the flanges for the borders.  But I thought I’d be clever and add that dimensional aspect to help me win some of the block votes.  Of course – it’s hard to see the dimensional aspect in photo’s so it really didn’t benefit me at all.  I do think it’s cool though and will be an extra element of interest when you see this quilt in person.   It does create a bit of a quilting dilemma … long arm quilters do not like those flanges.  It just messes with this.  I realized I would quilt this myself to maintain the good working relationship I have with the quilters. I basted the quilt and then got to work on my Bernina and some aurifil thread. I decided to quilt it in a never ending circle.  This is a pain to get started but once you get around about 20 times it’s not so bad.  For some good tips on how to do this be sure to try out Christa Watson’s book, “Machine Quilting with Style.” I did go in and do another concentric circle quilting in just one spot which created a cool grid effect. I would say I spent about 8 hours just walking foot quilting this piece.  The end result is worth it though as I think it fits the whole Modern part of the challenge. The final step was to bind and I was almost out of fabric.  So my binding decision was easy – whatever I had left that I could cut into 2.25-inch strips.  I made it work. And now that you know the story behind the quilt – I hope you can take a minute to vote for my quilt “Sake Bomb” at the Modern Quilts Unlimited page HERE.  There is an amazing prize and I would LOVE to win it!  Thank you for all your support! Linking up to: Finish It Up Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, and TGIFF