Quite a while ago, June 2014 to be exact, Debbie at A Quilter's Table hosted a Postcard Quilt Along based on her free tutorial. With all the good intentions in the world I planned to actually participate and finish up with everyone else, but alas my intentions didn't pan out and even though I finished up most of the blocks (and I think a quilt top) it sat un-quilted for over a year. At the beginning of this year, I added this quilt (along with one other) to my 2016 Finish-A-Long list. Now was the time to finish it up and I'm pleased to say that I did!
For the "postcard image" side of the block I used my stash of Japanese and Kawaii fabrics and chose prints that were scenes or images that might be found on a postcard. I also tried to keep the scale of these prints the same throughout and picked scenes I thought would fit the month they would be associated with. For example the June block above has an image of woodland animals at a carnival or fair, which I envision you would do in the month of June.
The "written" side of the postcard started with a Japanese calendar fabric that I currently owned and thought would be a fun addition to this quilt. I fussy cut the months and then added a pieced red/white/blue/white strip to mimic the printing you see on postcards/envelopes. I added a simple black divider and then on the right side fussy cut "stamps" (above, it is the flower) and then used a text print below the stamp to mimic the writing on a postcard.
I love rainbow quilts, so I added a solid border around each postcard bundle and then I had a completed top, which I intend for this to be a fun wall hanging.
The "written" side of the postcard started with a Japanese calendar fabric that I currently owned and thought would be a fun addition to this quilt. I fussy cut the months and then added a pieced red/white/blue/white strip to mimic the printing you see on postcards/envelopes. I added a simple black divider and then on the right side fussy cut "stamps" (above, it is the flower) and then used a text print below the stamp to mimic the writing on a postcard.
I love rainbow quilts, so I added a solid border around each postcard bundle and then I had a completed top, which I intend for this to be a fun wall hanging.
I have had this great sewing themed fabric in my stash for quite some time and I thought it would be the perfect backing for this quilt. Just as colorful and loud as the front, haha. The quilt was small enough that a one yard piece did the trick.
I love the look of grid quilted quilts and have quilted one baby quilt in the past with this technique without much success (puckering at every intersection) so obviously I was hesitant to use this method. In the end I decided to go for it and though it is far from perfect I do love the look and I didn't have the puckering problem with this one. I used my Juki and decided to forgo the walking foot and just quilt it with the normal foot that comes with the machine. I reduced the foot pressure to the lowest setting and lengthened the stitch to around a 3.5. I used a white 40 weight Aurifil thread and started quilting by stitching in the ditch around each block. So straight down the middle and then along the top and bottom of each block going all the way across. This may have not been the best approach or I should have tried really hard at this point to get things super straight but I didn't. I had a lot of bias cut fabrics in these blocks so some of the blocks ended up pretty distorted. I didn't realize until I was about halfway done and by that point I wasn't ripping it all out, so I just went with it and smoothed everything as much as I could. I quilted a 1" grid over the whole quilt working vertically first and then finishing horizontally. I didn't have any puckering (or only one or two spots because of the bias.) So even though it is far from perfect I still love the overall affect. Each block was exactly 6" tall so the math fell just right with the 1" grid and if you ever choose to quilt a grid do the math first to make sure the lines fall where you want them to.
Once this one was quilted, I trimmed and squared it up, which was rather surprisingly easy considering my bias problems. Yeah! I had a solid blue binding already made for this quilt but misplaced it and after searching for quite some time I gave up and cut new binding from this fantastic striped rainbow print that I think was perfectly appropriate. Now I just have to decide where to hang this one in our house! Fun!
Linking up at the very last minute, my one finish for the first quarter of the Finish-A-Long. Though I 'm sad I never even got a chance to touch the other quilt I had hoped to finish, I am thrilled that I at least completed one, took photos and blogged about it! Insert crazy happy jazz hands right here! I'll be back in a few days with my goals for Quarter 2.
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