After Spider's Kiss, I found my enthusiasm for quilting again.



Luckily, I was at home, in recovery mode and had some time to spend purusing the art and craft of quilting for as much and as long as my head could stand the constant whir of my machine! My then fiancee devised an arrangement whereby I could sew in bed, while watching TV, and I decided to take on something simple, using someone else's pattern.


In a quilting community at Live Journal, a member of the community posted a picture of a quilt she's made using a pattern from Annie Unrein's site called "Wickedly Easy". I liked what she had done (her version was all reds, grey and black and white Asian characters) so much, that I decided to make a version myself, using fabrics from my stash.

I got the pattern from Annie's site, (http://www.byannie.com/images/wickedly_easy_quilts_patterns.pdf), cut the fabric, and began laying out the strips in what I found to be pleasing colour groupings. However, as I did so, I decided to change the block layout a litte, instead of having the longest strip be in various places in each block, I ran mine through the middle of each.




And then, once I laid out the finished blocks, I decided that they needed something to break them up. Staying true to my own aesthetic which dictates that quilts need to have unexpected texture; I added sashing in a silky copper satin.



I loved the contrast so much, that I went out and bought more of the fabric to back the quilt, so when the top was done, it looked like this:



I began quilting it, using a simple stipple in a coordinating colour of each patch:



My plan was to quilt the sashing in a beautiful copper metallic thread.

Alas, my plan was foiled! When changing to a golden thread, I was dismayed and upset to discover that on the back, it looked like this:



!!!!

I assumed it was a tension issue, and mussed and fussed with both bobbin case and needle tension, but was never able to get the back looking like I wanted it to. I decided that there was something wrong with my machine and brought it in for servicing.

So the quilt, which I called "Autumn Steals In" became my second UFO, and was placed on a shelf in my sewing room, until my machine came back.

But not before Maggie took it for a test drive.



While I waited for my machine to be ready to use, I pulled out my old Kenmore and began making another top out of the leftover fabric from "Autumn Steals In" as well as some scraps and bits I had in my scrap bins.

But that's another post. ;)