Off Kilter Quilt Finish

I have one final finish (#4) for Quarter 3 of the 2016 Finish Along to share with you today. This quilt top was finished in March and has been sitting basted, partly quilted and rolled up, on my sewing room floor since then. (Hence why it’s looking a bit crinkled in the following photos.) 

The quilt pattern – Off Kilter – is a layer cake friendly pattern from the book Jump Start Your Quilting. I used a layer cake of Tula Pink Elizabeth paired with a grey Bella Solid.

I quilted it with a simple zig zag straight line pattern that follows the cut outs of the rectangle blocks. I was hoping to feel brave enough to try some fmq on this pretty quilt but after some not-too-successful practise, I decided it was a bit risky.

In my usual manner, the backing – Bats In The Belfry – and binding – Pearls of Wisdom – are from the same fabric collection. The finished quilt measures 54 x 64 inches.

I made a pillow cover with the leftover scraps which you can read more about here. There are also some skinny little scraps leftover from these two projects that I have been playing with. Hopefully, one day, I may have something else to share with you.

This quilt makes a reasonable total of five finishes for the quarter.

Note : The above photos were taken on the trip home after a tiring but successful family climb to Hartz Peak (1254m). I had planned to take my quilt up the mountain for a photo shoot but after experiencing hail/snow/strong winds in the carpark, I decided against it!

Here are a few photos for you from this spectacular location:

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts, Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts & NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation

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Off Kilter Scrap Pillow

This week I added the sashing strips to my Off Kilter quilt top.

I made this quilt using a pattern from one of my library book loans Jump Start Your Quilting. The pattern – “Off Kilter” is by Konda Lockau of Moose on the Porch Designs.

For this quilt, I used a Tula Pink Elizabeth Layer Cake.

This beautiful fabric and the Bella Solids grey background fabric were a pleasure to work with and I didn’t want to waste a precious inch!

While making my large blocks for this quilt, I made HST’s with the offcuts,

and played around with a few ideas for a pillow top.

The first option is (on a smaller scale) from the pattern Dizzying Diamonds by Melissa @ Sew BitterSweet Designs. I won this great pattern in A Lovely Year of Finishes 2015. I really like this Layer Cake-friendly pattern and plan to make an entire quilt using it one day.

However, for this particular pillow project, I decided to go with Option 3.

For the back of the pillow, I chose some gorgeous Tsuru “Old Lace” fabric in cerulean by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud 9 Fabrics.

I followed a Zipper Pillow tutorial that I have used once before but I had to modify it slightly so that I didn’t lose the points on my triangles. Attaching a zipper with a quarter inch seam resulted in some very wobbly stitching! I ended up unpicking these stitches and re-sewing it with the pillow front and back flat and the zipper open. The result was much better although if I make a pillow like this again, I’ll probably make an envelope enclosure for the back instead.

The pillow top finished at 15½ inches square and I used a size 16 cushion insert to fill it, resulting in a nice plump pillow!

We are enjoying our Easter long weekend at home this year. The kids are overdosing on chocolate while my husband and I are knocking down some internal walls ready for a future kitchen renovation.

I really hope you and your family are enjoying a relaxing long weekend.

Let’s hope no one ends up in a chocolate coma like our kids have 🙂

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts and Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts