Sunday, January 3, 2016

Penny Love--Finish



After I had finished September's mini Indigo Crossing, it was time to kick things into gear and tackle the October Aurifil mini.  October's designer was Sara Lawson over at Sew Sweetness and she gave to us Penny Love.  You can read more about Sara in Pat Sloan's interview here.

This little mini quilt would make me step once again outside of my comfort zone.  Curves.  Before I could get started, I needed to commit to my fabrics.  I had just finished up working on some Mini Barn Quilts and was still crushing on the fabrics I had used on them.  I had plenty left over so I pulled them for Penny Love.


I cut out the templates provided in the pattern and traced them onto my fabrics.


After everything was cut out, it was time to tackle sewing curves.  My first attempt, I gave pinning a try.


This seemed easy enough.  But once the pins were pulled there was extra fabric on the bottom and I was left with this.


A very bad pucker.  I even got creative and tried pinning from the bottom.



It was better, but still not quite right.  So I stopped and turned to searching on Pinterest.  I ran across a video at She Can Quilt (you can check it out here).  In the video she uses no pins (sounds scary) but watching what she did, made total sense to me and that was the method I ran with.

I realized after I started writing the post that I had became so absorbed making my drunkard's path curves I forgot to take more pictures.  I'll admit, a few squares I had to make more than once in order to get my hearts to sew together correctly.  I struggled getting the curves to match up with the straight lines of the heart.


After I had four hearts I felt fairly happy with, I could piece them together and come up with a quilting plan.  My thought was to do some curvy hearts inside the heart and pebble/bubble the white background.  Maybe the tiny bubbles would create a nice distraction to the eye so you don't notice the small places where the piecing isn't as perfect.  After deciding on my Aurifil  2021 as the all over thread for this quilt, it was time to get started.




I'm glad I settled on pebbling as my back ground filler.  It went fairly quickly and added a great texture to the surface of the piece.

In to time at all I was posting this teaser picture to Instagram until I could get the binding on.



Once again I chose the Susie's Magic Binding method over at 52Quilts.  This binding method has changed the way I finish my quilts.  I used the white on white fabric for my main binding and the gray polka dots from my backing for the flange.



After the binding was attached, I was officially in love with Penny Love.  And Drunkard's Path blocks...bring it!  I no longer live in fear of curves.

So that wraps up my version of Penny Love.  Stay tuned for the November mini Timber, she should be finished really soon ;)






21 comments:

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

This turned out beautifully, Tish. Curves can be really intimidating, and I have to say that the smaller the curved piecing, the harder I find them - so I am seriously impressed!! The quilting inside the hearts is awesome and I love how it echoes the heart shape without being more "hearts".

Lisa J. said...

Leanne's tutorial is great isn't it. Your mini turned out wonderfully and I'm impressed with the quilting as well.

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

Your curves are wonderful. You did a great job! Love the quilting.

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts said...

Congrats on conquering curves - they look really good! I love how wonderful the pebbles look - they are so neat and tidy. What batting did you use here Tish? I really like the texture you created.

Paige said...

Super job on your curved piecing and your quilting is fantastic as well as your binding! Going to check out the binding method. Congrats on your first finish of 2016 ! (right?)

Stitchin At Home said...

I love the quilting on the hearts. Curves can be a challenge, and it looks like you have them down pat.

Brianna said...

Your curves are very impressive. I haven't tried piecing curves yet, but this looks like a manageable sized project to try them on. I would like to try this binding out for sure. My very first binding was a two-fabric one, but not with this piping effect.

Cheryl said...

Beautiful work! I love the colors and quilting designs you used!

PaintedThread said...

That came out great, and I love how you quilted it.

andrea @ tideline quilts said...

Great curved piecing (I am intimidated by curved piecing)...and love your colour selection and quilting design!

Heidi said...

Just about adorable! cute cute cute!
I recently tried susie's binding from 52 quilts for my Cozy Christmas quilt, I LOVE it!

ipatchandquilt said...

What a sweet mini with those hearts. I too struggled with the drunkards path block this December. I tried using a glue stick instead of pins and I was very happy with the results. The templates I used did allow for trimming so my block mostly lined up nicely. The blocks turned into a Christmas quilt... still to be finished. At least those pesky blocks are now done! ;-)
Thank you for sharing your lovely mini!
Esther
esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com
ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com

Kathy S. said...

LOVE the colors you chose for this mini. The binding is perfect for it too. What a great way to frame it. Your FMQ is AWESOME. What a great finish! Congrats!

Empress Charlotte Handmades said...

So pretty. Your quilting is just right for this block!

Cathy said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I refuse to mess with curves. You did a fantastic job!

Sewmotion said...

What a beautiful block, I'm so glad you finished it and embraced curves! Your quilting is stunning by the way too! :)

Debora Exum said...

Nice timing. I was needing some hearty inspiration for Valentine's Day projects. This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Stephanie said...

Nice heart block, your curves look so precise!

Quilts and Such said...

What a lovely quilt and an absolutely gorgeous job of quilting. Your design selections are awesome!

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

This is so beautiful. I had big plans to make a mini quilt a month last year, but it never materialized, since I was busy making blocks for so many quilts.

Anonymous said...

I am so scared to sew curves. Your mini is beautiful. And such pretty quilting too.

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