SD1

This quilt got it's name from the patterened fabric from Sweet Divinity and the fact that I had enough fabric for two quilts. My friend & I got tired of typing out Sweet Divinity, so it got shortened to SD1.

This fabric is responsible for my decision to make some quilts to sell. I fell in love with it online. I'd pull the picture up every few days & just oggle it. Finally, I could stand it no more and whipped out the plastic required to purchase it. I'd never spent that much on fabric at one time before (although I have many times since), so it took me a while to get to that point.

And then the fabric got here. I knew the minute I opened it that something was wrong. One of the prints was of crowns. Crowns. Hmmm. And the pink was so - pink. I finally realized this was the perfect fabric for a girl of almost any age, but not so much for a middle aged woman. Still, it is beautiful fabric and I wanted to make something nice with it, just not for myself.

Tired of fretting over the perfect pattern, one day I cut the whole bunch into 2 1/2" strips. For this quilt, I cut a bunch of Kona white into strips as well and made this simple pattern.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and super proud of the back:

This is the lattice fabric from the front and I did an awesome job of matching up the design if I do say so myself.

I did simple echo quilting on either side of the seams. And it's bound 'scrappy' style with the same prints.

Quilt stats:
Size: 67" x 781/2"
Fabrics: Sweet Divinity and Kona
Batting: Warm & White

For sale in my Etsy Shop.

What I learned:

Hard lesson #1 - if your walking foot doesn't seem to be making much difference from your pressure foot, the cheap 'universal' walking foot you bought may just not be up to the job. I basted and started the quilting 3 times - yes 3 - before I realized that my walking foot was useless. Each time I assumed my basting was the problem as I'd get a pucker at every quilt line intersection. Finally, I just knew that my basting was fine and started looking for another explanation. As I really got down & looked, I saw that the teeth on my walking foot that were supposed to meet up with my feed dogs were not coming down far enough. I did what I should have done at the beginning with this hobby and ordered a Singer walking foot made specifically for my machine. The quilting was a dream from that point forward.

Hard lesson #2 - Don't cut into the binding after it's on, you bloomin' idiot. On another quilt, I had a problem with the backing shifting out of the way as I attached the binding, meaning parts of my backing weren't even in that stitch line where they belonged. So I had the bright idea with this quilt that I would attach the binding and then trim the excess backing & batting off. In doing that, I nipped two corners and had to re-do the binding in those areas. After all the problems in trying to quilt it, I just wasn't in the mood for another time consuming mistake.

My goal with this quilt was to make something good enough to sell. Something that I felt good about selling, and I have accomplished that. My squares line up well, it's asthetically pleasing, and the construction is good - I feel good about my craftsmanship. So, despite the major setbacks I had with it, I'm still very happy with the end result.