ZigZag Quilt

ZigZag Quilt for D

D's ZigZag Quilt - Leo loves photo bombing

The boy's sister, D, got this quilt for Christmas. It was originally meant to be a birthday present. Her birthday is in August. Do you think there might be a pattern here? Whoops. Unfortunately, a small detail known as the PhD submission deadline got in the way of the birthday present completion deadline. Anyway, all's well that ends well and she loved her birthday/Christmas present when she finally got it.

I decided on a black, white, and grey zigzag pattern because D recently bought some grey and white zigzag patterned sheets that she loves and also because her room is decorated in black and white, with light blue walls. She is frighteningly stylish and generally looks too cool for school. I really wanted the design to complement her personality and style.

Started: December 2013 (I sewed exactly one seam in August)
Finished: December 2013
Size: lap sized 130 x ??? cm
Quilt top: Bella solids 5" charm pack in black (9900PP-99), silver (9900PP-183), and bleached white (9900PP-98). I used 20 silver charms, 40 black, and 60 white.
Backing: Tula Pink's Salt Water Sea Debris in aqua because D loves kite surfing and the sea.
Binding: Tula Pink's Salt Water Sea Stripes in aqua The grey/blue progression really tied in well with the grey chevrons on the quilt top and the blue backing fabric.
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom wool batting. SO much better than everything else I've ever tried
Quilting: Machine quilted on my mother's Singer Samba 60 with some random white thread she gave me from her sewing cabinet.

Back of D's ZigZag Quilt: Tula Pink backing and binding

I pieced the top using half square triangles, which was a new technique for me. As it turns out, neither my rotary cutting skills nor my quarter inch seam allowance skills were consistent enough to be able to finish this quilt without the help of The Quilt Queen (a.k.a. my mother, who has nothing to do with the quilting queen of interweb fame). As demonstrated by the reject block below, things just weren't matching up to my exacting bordering on OCD standards. Luckily TQQ was around to save the day! I learned so much just from her going through and correcting my blocks so that they were up to scratch. My half square triangles aren't half bad now. Just keep practising!

Rogue block - so much for consistent seam allowances.

I embroidered a quilt label and whip stitched it to the back of the quilt. This is one of my favourite steps of quilt making. I keep promising myself that one of these days I will finish a quilt with enough time left to get really creative with the quilt label instead of just stitching the recipient's name and the date.

D's ZigZag quilt: quilt label

Here are some photos of the quilt in progress. I need to get better at taking photos as I go along. Isn't that what I started this blog for in the first place?

Quilt in progess: pin basting

Quilt in progress: quilting

I'm really happy with the colour combinations in this quilt. I generally find choosing colours and prints that complement each other quite difficult so this is a big thing for me. I really like the contrasting binding and the way the colours in the binding tie together the front and the back of the quilt.

I learned SO much, both on my own and from the TQQ while making this quilt. All of the half square triangles from now on!

Love, me xx