Prairie

Here is an old post that was never published about one of my first quilts that I made. I had held off publishing until it was gifted to my Mother, who had admired the colors. I guess I held off about three years from the time it was made! Here it is. I have learned so much about quilting since then. I would still consider using quilt as you go for a block quilt, but would leave three inches of backing a batting to allow for the quick addition of sashing, cutting away any excess fabric at the time of putting the blocks and rows together as needed.

checking out fabric choices for blocks

doing quilt as you go blocks

more blocks

Adding black contrast

Putting the blocks together ended up being a real pain as I had done quilt as you go, then had to add batting to the sashing and quilt the sashing strips after it was all put together. NOT doing that again! It was however, such a good way to get a feel for machine quilting. I had only previously done hand quilting or a little straight line quilting on quilt as you go bags. If I had included wide enough borders of batting and backing, it wouldn’t have been so difficult to put together. I didn’t decide on the wide sashing pattern in the beginning, however, it was a late design change. (But I like it!)

laying it out in the entryway

The pattern of the blocks is really well set off by framing the blocks with black and connecting them to each other through the white sashing strips.

All sewn together

This pattern was inspired by Tula Pink’s book where I used her sashing pattern with my block pattern that I had designed.