Outside My Comfort Zone

I managed to get the obnoxiously bright quilt top finished before Sebastian arrived. It was also the last thing I finished before my sewing machine conked out again. It's still not in the budget to take it in for service, but thanks to the generosity of some freecyclers, I ended up with two new-to-me and working sewing machines! One of them is an older model, low-shank Kenmore like the one I already had, so the feet I bought should still work. The other one is a Euro Pro electric machine with a ton of preloaded stitches (I just need to figure out how to make them work!) I'm so thankful and excited to get back to sewing!

The pattern for this is in the "Simple Quilts and Sewing" magazine #121. It originally called for the four-patch blocks to be done in two colors and one print for all of the large blocks. Since I had all of these fat quarters together, I decided to use them all. It also calls for 3 borders, 2 narrow and 1 wide, in different prints. However, I feel that the top is obnoxious colorful enough without adding extra borders! I think I'm going to try to find some yardage of the solid blue to use as backing, and maybe add in a pieced strip of my scraps. The original quilt measures 46"x62" - this one without borders is about 34"x47" (I think - I measured it when I took the picture and of course forgot to write it down!)

Here's a closeup so you can see all of the colors! Not only is it outside of my comfort zone to use all of these colors and prints together, I'm not a big fan of yellow, so the whole top just feels extra-bright. The only thing I need to decide now is who to give this to. I was going to keep it for Sebastian's Christmas quilt. However, Robert has been obsessed with trucks recently, especially the garbage truck. I think the best parts of his week are when Daddy takes him outside to see the garbage/recycling truck - the guys wave at him, honk the horn, and have even crushed the trash for him. Exciting stuff for a 28 month old! So I think I'll give this one to Robert for Christmas, give Sebastian the Pooh quilt (once I quilt it), and give Caitlyn the pink circle quilt. Whoo-hoo! One set of Christmas gifts down! Now to back, quilt, and bind this top and the pink circle top...

That's all for today - next time I'll have a finished knitted object to show you!