TripX2

I gave away one quilt for Christmas this year, and here my parents are opening it on Christmas day. For once, I made a quilt for a family member in the the year that I was actually there to watch them open it (this is what happens when you alternate Christmases between your parents and the in-laws).

This was a fun quilt to make, but a TON of sewing. I started it in a class offered at Patched Works last February, finished piecing it over the Easter holiday, and had it back from the machine quilter by the beginning of October. It still took me until December 20 to finish binding it, but at least I didn't have to pull an all-nighter to get it done in time for the holiday. Nothing like starting early and still getting it done in the nick of time!

There's not yet at pattern for this quilt, but one is being developed by Katie Migliano, from whom I took the class. (Actually, there will be a picture of my quilt included with the pattern! How exciting!). The design is based on the Trip Around the World pattern, and all of those lovely squares finish at 1.5" square. One of Katie's versions of this quilt can be seen on the classes page on the Patched Works site. It's a Trip Times Two because for each color set, there is one with a light center moving out toward dark, and a sister block that moves in the same progression from dark to light. My quilt does have a wide batik border on it, but you can't see it very well in the photos we took, due to perspective and the need to crop out some non-quilt matter.

The quilt finished at 93" x 113" and was quilted by Sandi Goulet of Quilted Treasures. It is the first quilt I've had quilted with a wool batting. It had a nice loft, seemed more lightweight than the cotton (and given all of the seams in this quilt, I was looking for something that wouldn't make the quilt weigh a ton!), and, most importantly - it was wide enough to accommodate the extra 8" Sandi needed to quilt it.

I have TONS of partial "trips" left over from this project, so you may see them in some reincarnation in the future.