Flying By The Seat of my Pants Quilt Finish!

Back in February, I made my first ever Dresden.  I was so completely impressed with myself, that I could pull something off, that looked so technically difficult!  It was meant to be made in to a cushion for my brother in law and his fiance for their engagement, however the colours just didn't feel right for the project - so I moved on to a second dresden!  I was left with this beautiful little piece of art and really had no idea what to do with it.  So over the past few months I have slowly but surely been putting together my "Flying by the seat of my pants quilt".  And this is is the end result......

Using the beautiful "On the Pond" range of Sarah Fielke fabrics, I had lots of fun with the colour palette and basically worked from the centre outwards.  Just adding rows of different piecing until I was happy with the end size and result.

The Dresden was made using THIS tutorial by Sew Mama Sew!

All of the quilting was done by me!  I used Aurifil thread (50wt) #2024.  A perfect, shimmery white.  There was a discussion in our QCA group on Facebook the last couple of days, with some wondering why Aurifil has such a great reputation?  I added to the discussion saying that I quilted this entire project without one single breakage!  Which is unheard of for me!  It also leaves far less fluff in my machine, which means less cleaning - equalling a happier quilter!

I basically echoed the star shape of the dresden, using my walking foot, and being ever so patient.  It was extremely time consuming, but once I committed, I knew I just had to stick it out.  I'm so glad I did!  The swirls in the white borders were another first for me.  A couple of months ago I bought a Craftsy class -  Free Motion Fillers Vol 1 by Leah Day.  So before starting this quilting, I finally sat down and watched about half a dozen of the "episodes" in the class, and thought I'd give the spirals a crack.  I have to say - the class gave me a hell of a lot of confidence, and made me feel like I could just do it.  Which I did.

I then also echoed around the triangles of the chevrons, balancing out all the quilting.

The flying geese were made using THIS tutorial by The Purl Bee.  They were a great size and once again, another quilting element that looks harder than they are.  The chevrons are made using HST's.  Super easy and super effective.

The backing fabric is a gorgeous cursive script print from Ikea!  I bought it ages ago and had it sitting and waiting for the perfect project.  I think it suits this quilt beautifully.

This lovely piece of heaven is a finished size of 52" x 71" - bigger than a throw quilt and smaller than a single size.  Perfection for snuggling.  I'm still yet to figure out who this quilt will be living with.  My lovely friend Gemma suggested I use it as a sofa quilt, however, so much white fabric + four children = disaster.  Sooooo, I am contemplating selling this beautiful baby.  I'll decide over the next week of looking at it!  I want it to be loved and cherished, not just put away in a cupboard or drawer.

I think that's SEVEN finished quilts this year!?!!?!?!?  You can see the others HERE.  I nearly fell over when I just counted them up!  I seriously have a problem addiction.  No rehab for me though - I'm just about to head downstairs to start on a new one!

What have you finished lately?  Are you addicted too?

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday over at Better Off Thread!  You can too!