Nine Dash

I'm calling this quilt "Nine Dash" because it is an amalgam of churn dash blocks with nine patch blocks mixed in.  I know I've written about the inspiration for this quilt, but I'll briefly catch you up.  I was blog cruising and came across this quilt and I really like the bold bright color with the low volume prints in the back round.  Buuuuuut I'm not currently a huge fan of the plus sign quilts so I tucked the idea away.  Enter Quilty magazine churn dash pattern.  So, I thought what about super bright churn dashes with a back round of low volume prints?  Yeah. yeah, that's the ticket.  As with all the quilts I make I use a design wall and it just wasn't quite right.  I quickly put some squares in between so see how I liked that and it was just right.  And, I really like the secondary pattern that began to emerge, almost like an asterisk, the low volume lighter fabrics of the nine patches and then the corners of the churn dashes made it's own pattern.  Love.

 I hung the quilt up in the branches of one of the backyard trees because it wouldn't stay on the fence and Rocky had to investigate the situation! Silly dog.

 The back came about because I had two extra churn dash squares left over from the front.  I can't quite remember now if they were just extra or had come out the wrong size.  Could be either.  As with most of the quilts I make I just have to add a bit extra to the back.  My Mom had given me this kitten fabric and I LOVE it. Love.  When I was pawing through my stash for the back I came across it and it is just perfect.  The blue was a twin sized sheet.

 I started the quilting on this Friday night, woke up early Saturday morning before work and quilted about an hour and then finished it Saturday afternoon.  For the binding I wanted kind of a solid.  At first I was thinking I'd do a scrappy binding with all the leftover bits of binding I have kept, but thought the quilt was busy enough.  I found this white and teal plaid that I felt fit the mood of the quilt.  I do bias binding, this tutorial is the one I follow, I feel like it's easy to understand and has good measurements already figured out.  Anyhow, one I cut the binding on the bias it made this fun cross-hatch pattern.  I don't know if you can tell from the above picture but the green in the binding matches almost exactly with the grass by the turtles.

I used a ton of fabric that I really, really love.  I only had a teensy bit of this blue with the bicycles.  Bah! I love it so.  The quilt finished up at about 78" by 79".

I don't think you can tell so much in this picture but the blue churn dash has poodles holding red balloons.  How could that not make you smile?  I started this quilt before Scott died so it's been such a friend to me.   It's been so comfortable to work on, I used to many fabrics that are adorable and make me smile, florals that I love.  When I have been sad it's cheered me up a little.  In a way, it's also a comfort to know that Scott saw this quilt and liked it.  This quilt will always make me happy :)  So, now that I've finished this I get to think of starting a new quilt or finishing up another WIP.  What will it be??? idk, grin.