My Precious Little Folks Quilt

My Little Folks lap quilt is finally finished!  Thanks to Kelly of KelbySews, the host of My Precious quilt-a-long in encouraging quilters to make something with their precious fabrics instead of hoarding setting them aside.  I am so happy that I took the courage to cut into those precious fabrics by Anna Maria Horner.

Well I guess some of you have heard me rambled on about the piecing bit, but in the end it was sooo worth it.  I pieced the half square triangles with solid white.  I was frustrated a little when the points did not match up.  Voile has the tendency to fray if you have to rip out a seam and that happened to me a few times, but please don't let that discourage you from quilting with the voile. 

There are many beautiful quilts made from it and there were no issues so far.   It's just my lack of experience in making half square triangles and this being my first attempt in making a whole quilt with just HSTs.

The back is pieced with the leftovers from the front.

I've hand quilted using white embroidery floss - stitched 1/4" away from the seam on the white areas only as I wanted to preserve the softness of the fabric.  I bound it in Marine from the pastry line and added a thin strip of scraps placed on the top  right of the quilt.

The lightweight fabric makes it the perfect quilt considering the weather over here and I'm sure I've mentioned before how wonderfully soft they are.  It's machine washable too!  My precious lappy measures 54" x 72".

Over all I LOVE this quilt and can't wait for it to get a bit cooler ( it's been raining alot recently...woohoo ) so I can snuggle under it...

linking up with

My Precious progress

Half Square Triangle quilt has been on my to do list for awhile and what better way to start making one using one of my 'precious' fabric, Little Folks line from Anna Maria Horner for the quilt along hosted by Kelly at Kelbysews.

I like the pattern on one of Quilt Story's quilts which I thought would be perfect to show off the beautiful warm and rich colour prints of this line.  My HST blocks are slightly smaller than their's, measuring a 4 1/2" finished each and I did a 12 x 16 blocks layout.

Prior to starting this project, I did mention about my worries dealing with voile to the members of the flickr group.  One of them suggested using thangles, a very useful tip, unfortunately, delivery takes approximately 2-3 weeks to reach here and I didn't want to wait as I was really excited on starting immediately!  The next suggestion made was using spray starch, and THAT I do have!   So I've sprayed, ironed and it did help to stiften the light weight fabric a little but it was still slippery to work with.  I've had my share with the seam reaper when I was piecing these blocks, my points didn't match up most of the time!!!  It took me almost a week and a half to get this top done, stopping and putting it aside whenever I got frustrated with it. 

If you have worked with voile before, feel free to leave a comment on how you have pieced yours.  I can't blame the fabrics used though - it is my 'precious' after all, maybe it's just my lack of experience in piecing HSTs...  As frustrating as it was dealing with voile, I simply love the super softness of this fabric and would definitely use it again!

Well anyways... my 'precious' top is finished, it has it's imperfections but I've moved on....  and here is what I've done so far.  I've pieced the backing with scraps I have left from the front. 

I've basted and started on hand quilting using white embroidery floss.  I have not decided on the binding yet, probably I'll play around with whatever I have leftover.

Hope to have a few more pictures soon.

It is still not too late to join in the quilt along. The only rule is to use up your 'precious' fabric, the item you sew is irrelevant ( bag, apron, pillow, quilt, etc ) and the fabrics need not be old, popular, or out of print.  It runs till mid August with prizes to be won every 15th of May, June, July and August.  Click here and it will take you to the Flickr group.

NOTE:  Thank you for all the votes for my quilt over at the Quilting Gallery!  It won 2nd place!  I appreciate all the comments and emails received over the weekend, I'm truly grateful for all your support! xoxo

Thanks for stopping by  =)