single girl nearly done

who would have thought my first curves quilt would be one of the fastest makes i've ever done? not me.

but here we are with all six rings complete (i opted for six in the end), a backing ready to go, and borders added.

originally, i only added 3" patchwork borders to the sides to increase the width, but that looked weird, so i added some to the top and bottom as well.

i have to say i wish i had added more background first and then the borders, and made the patchwork borders thinner. but i didn't have enough of the brown crossweave left to do that and the patchwork border was my only option with what i had on hand.

i got a little help with piecing the borders. this guy showed up and ran the foot for me. you can't see that he's stepping on the foot over there to the side. he was pretty good at stopping on time (mostly) and such a good sport to stand there for a while as we worked. at one point he said, "i need a chair," but there wasn't room for one. i told him when granna builds her new house with a big sewing room, we'll make sure there is room for a chair for him next to me. 

he was in such a congenial mood. he kept telling me he liked everything. "oh, i like your machine. oh, i like that fabric. oh, i like [fill in the blank]." we were looking over the 16 patch blocks his aunt d5 and i have been making for "pinky stinky" edna and he said he really would like some honey bears for a quilt. ah, too bad, buddy! those are long gone.

he also kept asking if we could do pins because he likes to do pins and take them out when we sew. i didn't need any pins this time around, but i'll find a need for some next time he comes to help me.

d5 helped me get a photo of the flimsy and dropped a corner in this shot. i think it's a fun, funky touch to this funky top. maybe you can see what i mean about the circles could use a little more breathing room between them and the border or a skinnier border. but we have what we have and we're taking it. i think the quilt looks much better squished up and draped over my lap, which is how it will be mostly viewed anyway. it's not often a lap quilt is seen spread out in full.

for my next "single girl" quilt, and yes i will make more, i will get enough background fabric so i can give the rings space to breathe.

once i got the rings complete and the top assembled, i decided to keep going. i'm using a single large piece of liberty tana lawn "libby" print in some beautiful fall colors for the back, so that was easy enough.

this top is not perfectly flat and the blocks aren't absolutely square. it has wobble to it. someone commented on instagram that the quilting would help hide this. true, but i usually handquilt my liberty + crossweave quilts. so i had to consider other options this time.

i decided to do some straightline machine quilting, spaced about 1 3/4" apart, and then to add some handquilting around the rings later. i found a golden thread i had on hand, aurifil 2318 in 50 wt, that coordinated with the top well. at first it felt like it showed too much, but i like it now it's all done.

 so close to a finish on this one after only a few weeks! i give the sewalong credit for that. also, i knew if i put this aside, i wouldn't pick it up again for a long time. i needed to keep at it and push through all those curves. and i did!