Penny Tiles: Finished

It's officially the first weekend of my summer. And, I am up north hanging with my sister while my parents take off to the ocean. Girls weekend!

This project has been a long time coming, but it's finally done. On my last post about this project I got a lot of questions about the whole "no-batting" approach to quilting. 

So here goes ... 

SUMMER WEIGHT QUILTS: NO BATTING

Final Thoughts 

Bulk at Seams: Knowing I wasn't going to put batting in this quilt, I pressed all my seams open to reduce the bulk. There is still some bulk at the corners, but the hand quilting hides most. You can still feel the seams through the quilt. This doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. It adds a little character to the hand quilting. 

Hand Quilting: I used Perle cotton #8 in white for all the hand quilting. Something that is easy to find at JoAnn Fabric, or you can spring for a more fancy brand. The hand quilting is chunky and creates a ripple in the fabric to add texture. Here is my tutorial to learn more. 

My Opinion: There is a time and place for no batting. A quilt with big squares would be perfect, the less seams the better! Also something that is hand quilted or tied would give the quilt better drape. I'm not sure machine quilting would look good. My thought is, it would be bad. Having spent many hours under this quilt while hand quilting, I must admit I love the weight. It wasn't too warm and was warm enough. Just perfect. 

This isn't an answer to every quilt, but it is possible with the right conditions. 

Binding: This was also my first attempt as using the backing as the binding. I thought the double bias binding would create too much bulk and mess with how lovely this quilt drapes. It worked out better than expected and was super easy. 

Detail of back.

So, this weekend while antiquing I did find an old sidebar that I am going to convert into a kitchen island.

Exciting.

My father didn't share in my excitement as he had to go pick it up 20 minutes aways. As a reward, he got an old road sign to put on the pole barn.

I think it was a fair compromise. Other than the fact I put another 100 things on his "Daddy Do" list in the course of 3 hours.  I guess he does deserve a weekend away!

P.S. I also found a stack of weathered hardwood up in the attic of this barn. Hello, dining room table!

Penny Tiles

Slow progress update. 

Hand quilting takes forever! This top was started back in January and I am a little over half way done. My Aunt promptly called dibs on this one, and she has been waiting.

One of my school friends makes her quilts without batting, and I loved the idea. It still has weight but not as warm, perfect for New England summers. I did go with a solid pink, flannel backing to make this great for spring and fall too.

So far, the drape and snuggle factor has been super!

Penny Tiles

Second project start of the year has arrived! Last year Messy Jesse released her Penny Tiles pattern, and I loved every inch of it. I started pulling fabric with fat quarter bundle of Sweet Shoppe (below), it's an older line by Michele D'Amore. The pattern calls for twenty fat quarters, so I went to my stash for the others. It took a while but I found ten more that played nice together.

Left: Stash Fabric, Right: Sweet Shop

After cutting up these sweet fabrics, I made a couple blocks just to see how they looked. Still loving every inch of this pattern. I'm excited to watch them all come together.