I am so excited to show you the top and backing for my Classic Stitches Row Quilt. It was (just over) a year in the making and it looks great. Thank you again to Mari over at Academic Quilter for hosting this BOM throughout 2015 and posting 11 awesome tutorials.
I sashed it with 1″ (finished) strips of a plain cream fabric that I had in my stash. I had planned to do a colorful border after the sashing but it is already 60″ x 70″ and since I plan to quilt it at home, I decided that was big enough. (It was quite windy when I took these photos so they aren’t the best.)
For the backing, I found a cute blue floral print on a clearance table for a great price. I held my blue ‘Broken Dishes’ row back (to control the length of the quilt overall) and pieced it into the backing.
I am very happy with the way the back looks. I definitely learned my lesson with this Broken Dishes row. It was the first row in the project and I mixed too many scraps within each block. I didn’t realize that mixing the prints and values this way would cause the block to lose the pattern. I feel like it doesn’t even look like the traditional Broken Dishes pattern, but rather like a Pinwheel block instead. This was a good lesson to learn and I didn’t mix the scraps as much in the later rows.
Overall, I call this project a success and will be basting and quilting it soon. I have just about finished quilting the brightly colored baby quilt (made from those blocks I found at the thrift store). But once that is done, I will move on to finishing up this row quilt.
This project is my second quilt made while following along Angela’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You can see the first one here. My RSC challenges for 2016 will be two projects that have a modern slant. For one, I be using a pattern called Pretty Gemstones, designed by Cynthia Brunz and published in the latest McCall’s Quilting magazine. I just bought the background fabric so I canstart piecing it soon.
Isn’t this a pretty quilt? I look forward to working on it. I have a second project in mind using improv fabric made from my scraps. There are all sorts of ways to do this and I haven’t quite decided what to do. At this point, I am making the fabric slabs and will wait to see what sort of quilt evolves from them. The color for January is Icy Blue and I have some perfect scraps for it!
Wishing you all a great weekend! We have enjoyed (lots of) rain and snow all week long in much of California. Some flooding is occurring in Southern California but up in the northern end of the state, we are all fine – just really appreciating the rain.
Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict this week. Both links are available at the top of the page, under “Link Ups”.
Congratulations on getting the top and backing pieced together; they look great! Cynthia’s designs are fabulous for scrappy color grouping, and I look forward to seeing your version of Pretty Gemstones come together. 🙂
Thank you Yvonne. I am just happy that this quilt was at least pieced prior to starting the 2016 RSC projects (which I did last night!) Hope you have a great weekend and congratulations on your quilt being selected as a candidate for the QuiltCon magazine cover. Crossing my fingers for you!
I love how the row looks on the back. I can see the pattern going back and forth between the broken dishes and the pinwheels. I love the front, too, and your quilts always look fabulous on your fence. Have fun with the Pretty Gemstones quilt and the other improv quilt. Icy blue sounds just right for January! (Here, anyway. Brr!) And yea for rain in California!
Yes, Icy Blue is perfect for working with these days. Woke up to a brisk 22 degrees this morning. Brr. I started piecing the Gemstone blocks last night and I love them. It’s going to be a fun project. Take care and have a great weekend!
Wow it’s beautiful! I love the backing you picked and adding in that row was, well Bernie it was genius! I think they look like broken dishes – they just scattered. 😉
Can’t wait to see the Gemstones – I do love that pattern.
Scattered broken dishes!! That is perfect. Thank you for that perspective. ? Hope you have a great weekend Linda.
Happy dance! Your top and backing look terrific! I love that the orange row is front and center. And the row on the back is genius. Broken Dishes can shift back and forth depending on how you look at it, and I think it looks great! Congratulations on a great finish! Can’t wait to see the quilting!
Good morning Mari, I used to think that orange was my least favorite color but after two years of RSC projects, I am starting to like it. The orange row is my favorite on this quilt for sure. I love the block and the brightness it adds to the quilt. Now as to how to quilt this. Hmmm… That is always a tough decision for me.
Take care!
Lovely! Well worth a year of effort. Good luck with the quilting.
Thank you Linda. I love doing these projects over the course of a year. A little bit each month and there is a great finish At the end of the year! Take care. 🙂
Beautiful! Very nicely done.
Thank you Danette. So glad you stopped by. 🙂
Well done, Bernie! It looks fabulous! 🙂 Glad to hear that you are getting the rain without the troubles.
Thanks Deb. The rain has been wonderful. It feels so great to have everything so well soaked. Hope it continues!
Oh what a wonderful finish for the New Year, it looks amazing, and as one of my quilt challenges for the year is a BOM quilt I shall bear in mind your tip on mixing up the prints too much – thank you
I look forward to seeing your progress on your BOM project this year. Which one are you doing?