Dr. Seuss's Pickle Dish - Finished

a picture-heavy post...

I couldn't be more pleased with how my Pickle Dish quilt turned out. I started working on it in November 2017 as a personal goal-of-the-month project, and finished it this week, so it was 17 months in work.

I started with paper pieced arcs. After awhile, when my husband saw some of the arcs on my design wall, he said it looks like Dr Seuss.  Um, okay, I guess I see the connection. Hence the quilt's name.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. So much so that I'm seriously thinking of making another Pickle Dish in a different color combo. Meanwhile, I'm keeping this one for me.

I quilted it myself, with topstitching on the arcs and stippling in all the background areas.

Borders at the top and bottom, so it wouldn't be just a square quilt. The total size is 66" wide by 78" long.

This quilt is so not photogenic! It's so much more vibrant and prettier in person than it looks in photos. The background print always looks greyed out. The background of the print is actually a dark hunter green. When you see it up close or in real life, you can see how pretty the fabrics are.

The arcs were laid out to form rings. Starting in the center: light coral, then two different yellows, then two different blues, two different green rings in the corners, medium coral arcs around the edges, and dark coral arcs in the corners. 

The backing is a coordinating crosshatch print. The binding is the same floral print as the background, because I didn't want the distraction of another color around the edge of the quilt. 

Most true-to-life colors in this photo

The backing also looks washed out in photos. It's hard to show the quilting but here's an attempt: 

If I say so myself, I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out. It was definitely worth all the time and work!

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF at Alycia Quilts, and Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More. Updated: Linking up with Favorite Finish at Meadow Mist Designs. 

Not So Bad After All

I didn't like Pup Top 1 because I thought it was boring and the light strips should have been narrower to mix up the proportion of light to dark a bit.

I showed it to friends when we were discussing a similar color scheme, and they thought it wasn't so bad. I have to agree, it's grown on me. Still a boring layout, but if the piecing is boring, maybe the quilting can improve it, right?

Can spiral quilting redeem a ho-hum top?

 Definitely! And of course I had to start the spiral off-center, so I chose a tiny heart motif to center it on.

Successful quilting, a quick binding, and this quilt is finished.

This quilt will go to CSQ's Operation Shower baby quilt drive. The finished size is about 36 x 45", perfect for a baby quilt.

I'll count this among my Rocking Chair Quilts (tab above).

Tutorial for H2H

Today is Tips and Tutorials day for Hands2Help over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. One of this year's charities is Jack's Basket, and they're looking for small quilts, about 36".

I have a 36" quilt called Framed Nine Patch that's fun to make, using a technique similar to that in my book Cut and Shuffle Quilts. You start with a simple framed block, cut it into parts, scatter the parts around and reassemble nine patch blocks, and voila, a fast and easy little quilt. Here's a soft version in sweet pastel corals for a baby girl:

And a version in blues made back in 2005 for a baby boy:

The tutorial starts here and includes my recommendations for fabric selection.

The tutorial continues with Part 2 here. There's also an option for a border if you'd like to make the quilt a little bigger.

Check out the other fun tutorials and tips - and treats, too! - over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Thanks, Sarah, for once again organizing Hands2Help!

"Goodnight, Darleen!"

My version of Kevin the Quilter's pattern "Goodnight, Darleen!" is finished. While I'm still not sure string piecing is my thing, I definitely enjoyed the challenge of making this quilt.

We finally had some good enough weather that I could take some outdoor photos. Murphy helped.

For backing I cobbled together leftovers from the backing of a very special quilt from my pre-blogging days. The soft green and white print is perfect! And for binding I used a bias-printed stripe from stash.

A few days ago I was able to get together with Kevin. He's been so supportive of my venture into string piecing, and he was blown away by my finished version of his pattern. Mine is smaller than his actual pattern so it came together faster, but it's still a challenging departure in technique for me.

I'm petite so when we were taking pictures there was a bit of a height discrepancy.

Ah, much better!

Link ups: Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Wendy's Quilts and More, My Quilt Infatuation

STLMQG Color BOM

The challenge is to pick one "spoke" of the color wheel and use only that color, neutrals, and possibly one accent color. We'll be directed to make a block each month in accordance with the skill or assignment of the month.

My color is yellow-green, and I can use all values ranging from Chartreuse to Olive. This month's assignment was to make some sort of a Plus block. For my main 12" block this month I chose the Have Faith block by Jaime at L'Fair Quilts.

I made a few extra smaller blocks. My plan is to combine them all in a sort of Gypsy Wife type layout, so each month I make a few filler blocks.

February's challenge was triangles:

January's theme was Nine Patch (anything using a nine-patch grid):

It should be interesting to see this project develop as the year progresses. I have a beautiful bold  magenta picked out for my accent color if I decide to use it; so far I haven't needed to, but it's available in case I want it. My yellow-greens are actually much brighter and prettier than they look in these gloomy indoor winter photos.

Pup Top Two

I didn't like Pup Top One because I thought it had too many light pieces in it, and the proportions were too regular, even, and boring.

Pup Top One

So I thought I would try again to feature the cute pup print with the leftover blue and taupe strips.

Pup Top Two

This time there's not enough contrast. Sigh. Oh, well, these are donation quilts for babies or kids, it doesn't matter that they're not the most artistic.

I'll try to get some outdoor photos of them when they're quilted and finished. At least the colors will look better than in these dull indoor photos.


Monday Link Ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt

Pup Top

Last week I showed the cute pup print for my March donation quilt. Those little guys are about an inch across.

This week when I needed a break from quilting my Pickle Dish quilt, I pieced a baby quilt top. 

Meh - It's fine, a bit boring. Too many lights, and too even. It doesn't feature the cute print as much as I would have liked. It'll still work fine for a donation quilt for Operation Shower or Project Linus.  I have enough of the pup print left for the backing, but maybe I'll back this top with something else and try to use the cute pup print in another top. 

Not every quilt is a work of art. At least figuring out what's wrong is a learning experience. 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Peacock Party