Purple Surprise: A Finished Quilt

I am thrilled to say that this quilt is finished, because now I have reached my goal to give a quilt to each parent and sibling.  Fourteen quilt total over 2.5 years.  This quilt is for my brother.  He requested a purple quilt, his wife's favorite color.  It is pieced using the jelly roll race method using my calculations for a 6 inch strip.  I talked more about the piecing and quilting of it in my last post.

I have named it "Purple Surprise."  Cheetah had suggested "Flower Surprise" due to the flowers on the back and then Vicki Suggested "Purple Surprise."  I guess you can see which suggestion I liked better.  ;)  Thanks, Vicki!

The strips finish at 5.5 inches wide, so I decided to quilt them with feathers.  I used a ruler for the vines and the plumes are all freehand.  I am so glad I did this because after quilting feathers for 6+ hours I can see and feel a marked improvement.  Something clicked for me after it was 75% quilted.  I liked how my feathers looked at the outer part of curves, but it felt a little choppy in the inner part of curves.  I have marked what I didn't like as much with little arrows in the following picture.

I was coming in toward the vine at an angle.  The angle matched the outer part of the curve on the other side.  Then instead of coming in at an angle, I decided to curve into the spine.  The spine became part of each "petal."

It is a very minor change, but I like how it looks so much better.  I don't think many people will notice.  However, I will notice.  :D

The back of the quilt has a pink, purple, and blue flower print with a purple/mauve print added in to make it big enough.

One nice thing about having a busy backing fabric is that I was able to empty 12 partial bobbins with colors ranging from pink to blue to purple.  I don't think anyone will notice unless it is pointed out.

I did make sure to use only pink bobbins where the leafy stripe was.  The pink blended better than any of the other colors.

All the bobbin threads I used were a light to medium color similar in value to the purple I used in the needle.  I just made sure I had good tension on a practice sandwich before starting on the actual quilt every time I changed the bobbin.

I was originally going to use a scrappy binding, but the quilt felt more formal with the feather quilting, so I used the same fabric as the stripe on the backing.

I am thrilled with how it turned out, and enjoyed making it every step of the way.

Quilt Stats #168
Name:  Purple Surprise
Pattern: Race Quilt Variation with 6 inch strips
Fabrics Used:  Dusty pinks and purples from my stash
Amount Used: 11 yards
Size: About 72 x 88 inches
Batting: Frankensteined Hobbs 80/20
Date Finished: October 2015
What I learned:

• I can piece battings together even for large quilts.
• I really love fast piecing so I can play with the quilting.
• I can still quilt large quilts on my small domestic sewing machine with a 6 inch arm.  
• I love quilting feathers and like it better when I curve the petals into the spine.  

Here is my attempt at draping it elegantly over the fence.  The colors in the quilt are very accurate.  But I wonder if they teach classes on how to drape quilts for pretty pictures.  Even after 5 attempts it still looks a little awkward to me.

I look forward to giving the quilt to my brother and sister-in-law, but until I do I am enjoying it on my sofa.  I love looking at the feathers every time I walk into the room.

This really was a fast fun quilt, and I plan on making more stash busting quilts in a similar manner.  I already have a couple kits made for a slightly smaller quilt.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilters have been doing.