sugar sweet pinwheel quilt, a finish

i recently remembered i had this long-term wip pinwheel quilt all the way to the binding stage before i abandoned it again. i'm really not sure why i hadn't picked it up. but once i recalled it was close to a finish, i pulled it out and got it done.

the littlest one started binding her quilt right alongside me, which made for a pleasant sunday afternoon together.

there wasn't much to do, and i quickly had a finish. while i was completing the quilt, i also finally realized what i wanted to do with it. i was waffling between sending it to the cabin and sending it to a certain aunt. then i got a new idea completely and it feel absolutely right.

 

the little bit of a look you can see on my daughter's face kind of sums up us trying to snap a quick finish photo of the "sugar sweet pinwheel quilt." she was certainly willing to help me, but we had some issues. for one, she couldn't hold it up straight and still hide her face.

and then the dogs got involved.

one second she is holding the quilt up in front of her while the dogs circle her feet, and the next she has whisked it quickly to the side. "what are you doing?!," i asked in exasperation. "pan was trying to pee on the quilt!," she responded. "oh, come on. really? he wouldn't do that."

but when i looked at the photo i had snapped just as she tore the quilt away, the full evidence was right there. naughty little puppy boy! he is pretty notorious for trying to mark everything (which is why he's an outdoor dog), and i guess he liked the quilt and wanted it for himself.

at that point i gave up on the photos and threw the quilt in the wash. i don't think pan hit his mark, but i wanted to wash it anyway since it was complete.

there is a lot of red in this quilt, and i had recently read an account of a quilter who had used an older red fabric which bled on her quilt despite using color catchers. i always use color catchers and have never had any problems with bleeding, but i was feeling nervous because these were 10 years old.

i put 3 color catchers in, and although they came out bright pink, there is no bleeding anywhere on the quilt. yay! they certainly did their job, didn't they?

this quilt is made from a fat quarter set of lecien flower sugar fabrics from 2010 that i purchased in my earliest fabric buying frenzy days. a number of years ago, longer than it seems it was, i saw a pinwheel quilt on ig and decided these would make a nice valentine's day quilt. i think partially because i intended this for a holiday quilt and partly because i wasn't super hyped about it, i usually worked on it in january hoping for a holiday finish, and then put it away each year. i was a much slower quilter back then. 

the background is a couple of different whites, which gives a tiny bit of movement and bit of a make-do look to the quilt. i think i used moda charm squares for the white portions.

i had it to the binding phase by 2019, and started binding it during my mother's final days after i completed the penny patch quilt i was binding at that time. and i took it to the cabin that summer, which is when i thought maybe it would make a good cabin quilt. but it got put in a basket and sat untouched after that.

the quilting was done in a dogwood/citrus peel pattern in the pinwheels, which meant i didn't have to mark them. the binding is scraps leftover from the fat quarters.

the backing is a few more fat quarter scraps, a large piece of flower sugar from a different year, and the coordinating blue floral from a tanya whelan line.by the time i got around to making a backing, the original fabrics weren't available anymore and i had to make do with what i could find that was similar. i managed to work the selvage in on the blue piece, a touch i like if i can make it happen. 

one last look at how good the crinkle got once it was out of the dryer.

i'm looking in to ordering a custom label i can add to this quilt because i really would like to add those to the quilts i gift. once i have that squared away, this quilt will be off to its home.