Kindly pull to the side of the road! There’s a quilt finish coming in hot!
I am happy to share my latest project with you. This sweet fire engine is my first pixelated quilt, from a tutorial by Kitchen Table Quilting’s Erica Jackman, and it makes me so happy. I love how a quilt doesn’t need to feature difficult piecing or intricate quilting to be beautiful and bring joy to its maker.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the challenge with this quilt was amassing the necessary 2.5-inch squares (all 750 of them!). I scoured my scrap bin, cut 2.5-inch strips from my stash, and got some scraps from friends. It took years, but my patience paid off: I did not buy any fabric specifically for this project.
After collecting the fabrics, this fire truck was an easy sew. Erica’s tutorial breaks down the piecing into several sections, so I laid out each section before sewing to distribute the prints evenly throughout the top. I pressed the seams open as I sewed. I know a lot of people (maybe most?) would have pressed the seams to one side and nested them, but I would rather devote the time to pressing seams open and pinning where they intersect. Doing so creates a flatter, easier-to-quilt top in my opinion.
Again, my persistence paid off here. The quilting was surprisingly fast. The flat seams were a dream to quilt over, and it was a delight to quilt a grid by traversing the seams diagonally with my walking foot without marking anything. I did, as I always do, start in the middle of the quilt for my first set of diagonal lines and quilted outward. Doing so requires burying a bunch of threads, but that’s another step I’m willing to invest more effort in. Once it was time to quilt the diagonal lines running in the opposite direction, I was able to quilt edge-to-edge with no puckering. If you’ve read about my quilting trials over the years, you know that’s a win. : )
I already told you about a pixelated Hello Kitty quilt I have planned. Well, I have since placed another pixelated beauty on my to-do list. Check out the Embroidery Flower Quilt here. (I am also going to sew the My Colourful Town Quilt, featured on the same web page.)
I always like to have an easy project at the ready. I’ve been doing a lot of design work lately, which requires more from me creatively and cognitively, and it’s nice to relax to the hum of my machine piecing some simple patchwork together. Does that ring true for you, too?
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The quilting compliments the quilt so nicely by adding great texture and not overwhelming the fun pixelation. Congratulations on the finish and the delight you were able to create in the making and gifting!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great finish Michelle. It really is cute. Good luck with your other pixilated quilts and thanks for sharing the links!
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Michelle! I only regret that I didn't get to send you some squares!!! I look forward to future pixelated quilts--love those patterns!!!
ReplyDeleteThis fire truck will sure bring lot's of joy. Congrats on your finish! xo
ReplyDeleteTotally awesome! And I notice the fussy cut pieces like the cute little gray elephant.
ReplyDeleteIt's always nice to have a finished quilt, isn't it? And this one has SO many pieces! I'm guessing you wouldn't want to make a pixelated quilt much larger than this because it would be really heavy, with all those seams. I say this because I learned such a lesson when making a quilt with 1-1/2" X 1-1/2" (unfinished) squares. Lots of seams!
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