Monday, December 19, 2011

Shalom Cardigan pattern now available in Hungarian!

Many thanks to Eszter Sarkadi Nagy, who volunteered to translate the Shalom Cardigan pattern into Hungarian! The translation can be found here, or in the sidebar on the right. köszönöm!

Two years in the making

I interrupt this long blog break to show a huge finished project!

I started this navy and white zig-zag quilt about two years ago. The cutting and piecing went very quickly, but I stalled out on the quilting. Life got really busy for a while, but luckily things have slowed down so I was able to concentrate on finishing this.

I'm so pleased with the end result!

Zig-zag quilt

The quilt is queen sized and composed of navy and white rectangles sewn together in a zig-zag pattern.

Zig-zag quilt, with circular hand quilting

After failed attempts at free-motion machine quilting, and machine quilting in the ditch, I finally decided to hand quilt 3" circles in each square. I used matching thread on the front, so it alternates on the back.

Colorblock back on zig-zag quilt

The back is a very simple color block that I think could look pretty good on its own.

Zig-zag quilt

I originally wanted yellow binding, but this cheery blue caught my eye, and adds to the nautical look of the design.

I have to say, I was really intimidated by the idea of hand-quilting a queen sized quilt, especially since I had never hand-quilted anything. It did take quite a number of hours (and days and weeks) but I actually enjoyed it. It definitely adds something special and makes the quilt look handmade.