"Almost Winter" Wall Quilt

"Almost Winter" is the name of a small wall quilt I just designed and am working on. I have machine-quilted it but will add more quilting by hand between some of the strips. The theme I chose is Nature and even though it is a strip quilt made in the traditional pattern of "Chinese Coins," I picked fabrics from my fabric stash that would reflect the colors of Autumn:  yellow, orange, rust, and brown.

"Almost Winter," an original wall quilt designed by Patricia Cummings

For interest's sake, I varied the size of the strips. Some are cut as small as 1 1/4" and the largest are cut at 2 1/4". I found it easiest to cut the strips width-wise at 6" since that is the width of my rotary ruler. After sewing the strips together, vertically, I trimmed them to 5 3/4". It is nearly impossible to sew a set of strips together and have them come out exactly the same size! The sashings and borders were cut at 2 1/4" and so were the binding strips (which were folded in half before applying them). The total finished size of the quilt is 20" long x 23 1/4" wide.

I've yet to add the sleeve on the back and the label but those will wait until I add some more quilting by hand between some of the strips for stability. I decided to add some striped fabrics and one with polka dots. One fabric was not printed on the straight of the grain and I added it, just the way it was sold as a fabric strip from a jelly roll packet.

The fun of the quilt was playing with colors and auditioning how they would interact with each other. Luckily, I found the perfect backing fabric in my stash. It has figures that look like snowflakes and is a yellow-orange in color. Now to make the label, always the finishing touch to any quilt I make. Hope you have enjoyed seeing my latest quilt.

A book review I posted this week is "Pagtinabangay: The Quilts and Quiltmakers of Caohagan Island" found on my website under the category of "Quilts."

Happy Quilting!

Patricia Cummings
www.quiltersmuse.com