Quilty Kisses: Another Feathered Finish

First off, Happy Valentine's Day!  These beautiful roses are from all my boys.

My sweet mother-in-law gave me a gift card to a quilt shop I do not normally go to for Christmas.  When I went to look at the fabrics they had, I found myself very overwhelmed.  I had money in my pocket to spend, but didn't know what to get.  (I have found that I really like to buy for a specific project lately.)  Then I remembered Cynthia's suggestion:  look at their solids.  I was amazed by how many Kona cottons they had.

When I saw all their pinks, I remembered the XO quilt tutorial at Canoe Ridge Creations.  It had been on my bucket list since I saw it the first time.  I went home with a plan, then had to go back to the store to get the right fabrics.  I was able to find five of the pinks suggested and just replaced the darkest with Kona Ruby.  I really like my substitution.  :)

If you check out the original tutorial, you will notice there is an X and and O.  I really like quilt kisses, so I decided to use two X's.  To emphasize the X's I added a 1.5 inch cut strip between them.  Totally love it!  Just look at all these Quilty Kisses.

The backing fabric from "Kiss & Tell"  really makes me happy.  The funny thing is that I have never been drawn to fabric with lips before.  However, I think this is my. most. favorite. quilt. ever.  It is just so me:  simple design, fun quilting, quick finish (3 days), and quilty kisses.

Is anyone still wondering why I love it so much?  I was able to put my feather practice to use in the nine inch finished strips.  And it's ombre.  Enough said?

Maybe not.  ;)  Maybe you want to see some in process pictures.

Don't Kona Ruby, Pomegranate, Bright Pink, Candy Pink, Carnation, Medium Pink, and White look so pretty together?

On to the process... I made a template with long paper and 4.5 inch circles to mark the vines with a Hera Marker.

I also had fun picking out threads.

Note:  these are DMC 50 weight cotton embroidery thread.  I wanted to use them for the colors, but there was some fights between the thread, the machine, and me during quilting.  The thread liked to give up and break.  But it was totally worth it!

Then I planned the quilting.  I wanted to do spirals in the X's and feathers in the stripes.  I used clear vinyl and washable dry erase markers to see if I could make the feathers go behind the X's.  Luckily I was able to free-hand it and didn't have to mark anything more than the vine.

I used long arm quilting rulers to quilt the X's.

And it turned out exactly how I pictured it.

To simplify things, I used two different pink threads in the bobbin.  The middle of the three darks, and the middle of the three lights.  (Plus some white for the X's).

That way I only had to wind two bobbins and the bobbin threads each blended nicely with three of the top threads.

Another thing I did was cut the top and bottom strips a half inch extra wide.  Then I quilted the feathers to the marked line at 9 inches.

Then I cut off the extra making sure to leave enough to not cut off any of the feather tips.

After quilting I zig-zagged the edge.

And added the same binding from the "I Love You" line as my Rainbow in Motion quilt.  This time I decided to sew it to the back by hand.

I love the way it looks.

I love the corner label.

I love the back.

I love the front.

And I love how it brightens my kitchen.

Quilt Stats #128
Quilt Name:  Quilty Kisses
Pattern:  Altered XO quilt
Fabric Used:  Kona solids (see above for the list of colors)
Backing:  Kiss & Tell
Binding:  Henry Glass I Love You
Amount Used: 4 yards
Batting:  Hobbs 80/20
Size:  About 42 x 54 inches
Date Finished:  February 2015
What I learned:

• I really love feathers, ombre, and pink!
• Quilting spirals a quarter inch apart takes a long time.  (30 minutes for each X.)

What  great use of my Christmas gift card, right?  Kinda reminds me of the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  Except it's if you give Jasmine a gift card to a quilt shop...  But that doesn't sound as fun for kids as for Jasmine.  ;)  Unless you are Jasmine's boys and have a love for anything pink or purple.  Panda was even wondering why Daddy picked out the red roses.  He thought pink and purple flowers would have been so much nicer.

Daddy knows that red roses are my favorite.  (As is this quilt!)  Good thing my hubby doesn't mind decorations left up a little past the holiday.  I finished this with just one day to spare.

Now I need to go make my pink loving boys some Sugar Cookie Bars with pink frosting and cherry hearts.  They are the true loves in my life.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties listed on my sidebar.  Click on the buttons to see what other quilters are up to.