Finish it up Friday - Zen quilts

Hello everyone, I am posting two finished quilts today as part of a continuing roundup of WIPs which I have managed to quilt and finish since the beginning of the year. I have nearly caught up with posting, but not with finishing all my WIPs, though progress has been made!

This has come about because I decided in November that I really should prioritise finishing some tops I have had languishing for far too long: they won't quilt themselves after all! So I have tried to be good and not to start too many new projects recently - but it is so hard: sometimes my brain feels like it is bursting to make three more quilts for every one I manage to finish: do you ever feel like that?

This pair of quilts are made mostly from a range by Makower called Zen which was around probably ten years ago.  When they surfaced during a big sort out, I found that I had pieced the large quilt and that I had allocated a brown floral fabric as a backing.



After measuring I realised I couldn't add a border as the backing would not then be large enough, so I decided  on a quilt without borders -  it is 72" square or thereabouts - and that I would quilt diagonals across every square but in alternate directions so the quilting would not be too dense and stiff. The binding is a pink tone-on-tone which also appears in the quilt.

I'm sure you will be familiar with the quilt's pattern: it is Scrappy Trips around the World by Bonnie Hunter (tutorial here), a design I have made before and love. I am a big fan of her super-speedy methods for making big quilts which use lots of fabrics.  Here the strips are 2 1/2" so the blocks finish at 12".



However I still had quite a few strips left over, as the strip set method yields enough for two blocks and a few extra strips over and above: you know how I hate not using every scrap, especially when already part-pieced, so I resolved to make a second quilt with the leftovers.

I decided therefore to make a super scrappy Bargello - also a Bonnie Hunter design (tutorial here), which I have made before and also love.  I added in a few extra strips which bulked out some of the shortfall, and then spent ages shuffling the blocks around until I got a design which more or less worked without repetition.

So here is the finished Scrappy Bargello quilt which measures 48" square. Not quite such a useful size but it would look good draped on a chair to accessorise with the larger bed quilt.

I found a large floral fabric in my stash which picked out the soft greens, browns and pinks, (I used a little of this fabric in the blocks too) and a green print this time for the binding, so the quilts are twins but not identical .

I am pleased to have completed this pair of quilts and to have made something useful and useable from the bag at the back of the cupboard. Indulge me in a few more photos, and then go and admire Amanda Jean's lovely finish at Crazy Mom Quilts today.

Have a great weekend, whatever you are working on.