Friday, July 16, 2010

Anniversary Crosses

The Cross Quilt is finished! I ran it through the washer and dryer to highlight all the puckered goodness of the Warm and White batting.  Kona and Moda solids in green, aqua, yellow and white blend together for a fresh looking summer quilt.
The random quilting was fun and fairly quick to do on my machine.  Every once in a while I made a little blip in the quilting line creating what I'm officially calling my Organic Quilting.  I am loving how it texturizes the surface.....especially with this liberated style of quilt block.
The blocks themselves are fun to make. I created a tutorial, if you are interested in making some for yourself.  The blocks in this quilt all vary in width but are the same 10.5 inches high. To put the quilt together, I Iaid the blocks all out in rows of similar length, then beginning with the shortest row, I started sewing the rows together. I subtracted a little off of some of the blocks so that each row measured the same as the shortest. My quilt has 6 rows and is approximately 60 inches square.
The back is almost as fun as the front, I think.  Using leftover solids, I pieced two strips with narrow yellow pieces between green and blue. You can't see it in the picture, but I used the lower whitish strip on the edge as my label.  I loved the way that looks and may start doing that on all my quilts instead of sewing on a square in the corner as I usually do.
I found a wonderful, soft aqua print for the main backing.  The textured quilting really sings on the simple backing.  I love it.....and will definitely be using this quilting style again.
Picking a binding color was not the easiest decision.  I contemplated piecing together scraps of all the fabrics from the front.  Another idea was to piece together just the yellows as a flash of color around the edge.  In the end, I settled on ash grey Kona that I found in my stash.  I think it makes a nice finish to the edge of the quilt, keeping the crosses from falling off the edge, yet not competing with anything.
I couldn't be happier with the final look of this quilt.  I am so glad that I joined Joan, Heather, Jennifer and Amy in this project.  Be sure you take a look at their awesome quilts too.  The quilt is going to a happy home......Today is my daughter and son-in-law's 5th wedding anniversary.
Happy Anniversary, you love birds!! Hope you like this gift of love!
This is a picture of a picture, but aren't they a beautiful couple! I can't believe that it's been five years already.  I bet they can....baby number two is due to arrive in a few short weeks!

21 comments:

  1. What a beautiful gift to a beautiful couple! I love the look of your organic quilting and especially like the refreshing colors. Maybe I'll get to see it in person at guild??

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  2. Oh my goodness! It's beautiful! Your daugther will be thrilled, I'm sure. I love the texture of your quilting; straight lines are a little tedious but I think you found a brilliant way to quilt them...

    Jennifer :)

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  3. Carla, what a fabulous quilt. I love the colors, the blocks, the quilting, the back, everything about this quilt. Making quilts for loved ones is just the best. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I'm not usually a big fan of the cross quilt, but yours is stunning. Wonderful really! The color combo is so fresh. Thanks for sharing. - a fellow Kansas City girl

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  5. I LOVE this! I love the colors and the "organic" feel to it. I bought some solids and I can hardly wait to make one! I'm sure your daughter and son in law will love it.

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  6. Your quilt is jaw-dropping gorgeous! I'm just blown away! And your photos of it are outstanding! I love your "organic" quilting!

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  7. stunning! I followed your trail from the fresh modern quilt group on flickr. I love love love your cross quilt, really beautiful - I am all inspired to do a solid cross quilt now. Thanks for sharing.
    x

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  8. This is so pretty in solids! The quilting is fabulous, too. Thank you for the tutorial on your blocks!
    I am also working on a quilt-top like this... seeing all the pretty cross blocks is too tempting...

    ; )

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  9. Wowee, kazowee! LOVE IT! The colors are gorgeous, the blocks are fab, the quilt is amazing! Bravo!

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  10. It's beautiful! What a fun idea to do an anniversary quilt. Although I hope my children aren't reading -- it took me two years to get the wedding quilt done -- I'm thinking an anniversary quilt would take four years LOL! LOVE those colors -- lucky kids!!!

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  11. This quilt is gorgeous! I love the color palette -- it seems bright and calm at the same time. Beautiful!

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  12. What a lovely gift; the quilt is BEAUTIFUL!

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  13. Your daughter and her family are very lucky to receive such a wonderful gift! This is one of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen. I love the colors! Very serene!

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  14. What a gorgeous quilt...I bet it was hard to let go of this quilt.

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  15. I LOVE your color selection and the fact that you didn't make all of your crosses the same size. So pretty! I bet your daughter will love it.

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  16. so gorgeous and so inspiring!!

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  17. Very adorable and happy. I love all your pieces. So refreshing.

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  18. This is gorgeous and very inspirational, I love your style.

    And I checked out the others in your link and while theirs are lovely, yours is by far my favorite.

    I'm enjoying your blog, thanks so much for it!

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  19. Such a beautiful quilt! I've bookmarked it for my "to-do" list of quilts for next year. I'm hoping I get enough time before Christmas 2011 to make two twin quilts like this for my boys- the quilt just looked like wrapped presents to me and I love the all solids :) Thanks for the awesome inspiration and for "organically" quilting it- that makes me not so scared to try big quilts!

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  20. so late in the game to see this quilt - but I found one in fresh modern quilts that referenced your tutorial! were these organic lines free motion? or were those feed dogs up? LOVELY work!

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