Another quilt top

Inspired yet again by posts at Crazy Mom Quilts, I finished my Dad's quilt. She had posted a love fest for Connecting Threads and then in another post showed her original pattern involving pinwheels.

This is a quilt kit from Connecting Threads (Indigos Around Lap Quilt by Kristin Gassaway), I can't remember the price, but it was extremely reasonable (I believe it was under $40.00 and perhaps under $30.00). There was plenty of fabric in the kit, and there was enough extra to cover re-cutting entire series of pieces I cut too small for the flying geese (my advice--never, ever cut your fabric when you are sick).

I put it away for a long time because I thought my pinwheels were not good. I thought they had shrunk too small to fit with the brown squares (another piece of advice---never, ever starch when pressing seams open). I bought the kit because I thought the colors will suit my Dad and I was tired of catching him napping in his recliner under a towel. I am not generally fond of this color combination, but I love the quilt so much now that it is finished. The fabric frays a bit, but it is manageable.

I thought I would need to re-cut again and remake the pinwheels. Looking at my pinwheels months later, they are, for the most part, fine though they aren't perfect. My machine did not like assembling the blocks and going through so many seams in the pinwheels, but again, I blame the starching, though I could be wrong.

As much as I disliked making the pinwheels, I love the flying geese. They were so easy to make (once the pieces were the correct size) and look great. I did change both the direction of the pinwheels and the direction of the flying geese to suit myself. In the original quilt, the geese fly counter-clockwise.

I think the movement of the quilt is great considering it uses only three colors: brown, cream and varying shades of blue. There are twenty one different fabrics used in the quilt top and another fabric used for the binding. Browns are not my favorites in general, but I love the brown squares. The fabric is so nice and the color is perfect. It looks like a yummy chocolate bar.

I also used Milk Chocolate thread by Connecting Threads as well and it looks equally delicious (think a nice cup of hot chocolate). I have used other Connecting Threads thread and it works well for piecing. It seems a bit thicker than other threads, but it is great for assembly. With my old machine, it created a lot of lint. With my new machine, not much lint. I attribute the lint factor to how the thread is pulled. With my old Kenmore machine, the spool was placed vertically and spun while pulled. On my new Kenmore machine, the spool is placed horizontally and the thread "unwraps" rather than the spool being spun. Is that clear as mud or are you following what I am saying?

Now I just need to make the quilt back and binding, then quilt and assemble. I may go to my friend's long arm, or I may try to do some straight line quilting on the new sewing machine. I think the pattern just screams for triangles don't you? I don't think I am up for quilting each block individually though.

I may need to make a pink and aqua version for my daughter. Once I finish all my other projects that is.