A finished postage stamp quilt

It seems hard to believe, but here it is: I actually managed to finish a second quilt this summer! I started making the quilttop during the Easter holidays and finished it right after the summer holidays. That's probably a speed record for me.

This really is the simplest design possible. The squares are 1.5" finished. It's the first time I tried a smaller square and it does make a difference. It looks more like postage stamps :-)

The binding is a black Kei Honeycomb fabric and the backing a extra wide version of  Newsprint by Carrie Bloomston. It is the very first time I've tried an extra wide fabric and this print and I must say I was a bit dissapointed by its quality. The weave is quite loose. Is that typical of those extra wide backing fabrics perhaps?

The quilt was handquilted with white DMC thread in the simplest quilt pattern possible. But the overal effect is quite pleasing.

The size of the quilt is 140cm x 200 cm, just big enough for a single bed or a very generous lap quilt. I wanted to make it a bit bigger but lacked the energy to start cutting and sewing again.

Now up to the next one! I'm actually making a sketch for a quilt, inspired by our recent trip to Sweden and all the beautiful flowers and Scandinavian design we saw there. And I might have bought some fabric there that would be perfect for a Scandinavian summer quilt...

A blue postage stamp quilt

It has been a while that I have wanted to make a postage stamp quilt with blue fabrics. And so I selected 80+ blue fabrics (some not much bigger than scraps) to cut into 2 inch wide strips.

After cutting all the fabrics, and sewing them together, and cutting them in strips, and sewing the strips together again to make the blocks, I discovered I had not enough blocks to make a big quilt. And so I started the whole process once again: take the fabric, iron, cut, fold, put away. 80 times, two Sundays. And I had yet to start piecing.

The squares are 1.5 inch finished, the fabrics are both old and new, many Denyse Schmidt and many different others too.

 A postage quilt looks simple, and it is, but there is so much to cut and piece and cut again and piece again, there seems to be no end to it! Luckily for me, this weekend is a long one with a national holiday, so I had four whole days off from work! Those were well used to finaly piece the whole quilt.

The quilt measures 140x200cm, which means is is big enough to use on a single bed. Or as a very generous lap quilt. We'll see. Now I have to find a backing fabric (something grey I think) and start quilting.