Saturday, May 16, 2015

Philadelphia Finish

It's quilted, bound, labeled, washed and presented. Hooray! And he likes it very much. It finished 77" by 89".

PhiladelphiaFinished
Nine-inch Philadelphia blocks in reproduction fabrics
and muslin sashed with floral stripe.

Wanting soft and comfy, I quilted a diagonal grid in gold colored cotton Gutermann thread. This 50-weight thread is a bit thicker than some other brands and was perfect for this use. To me, it is the machine equivalent of utility quilting. (The blocks were previously ditch stitched with invisible thread.) I had planned to use brown thread but it was too harsh against the muslin.

Philadelphia, detail

Spirals are my favorite quilting design so I added them to the border. I usually sew them completely freehand. This time I marked with Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles to delineate the maximum width and keep the spacing even. There are several sizes in the package so it was easy to choose a good size.

Philadelphia, detail of back

Why does the quilting show so much better on the back? There was only one skinny strip left of this Nancy Crow fabric. Not only is it a great design but the material has a beautiful hand.

Philadelphia, detail of border and binding

I've been intending to try mock piped binding for several years and finally did on this quilt. How easy and fun it was! That tiny bit of red perks up the quilt. There are many posts for this technique. I chose Susie's Magic Binding.

Links to the previous posts here.
  1. Beginning the quilt.
  2. Tutorial of the Philadelphia block.
  3. Borders.
Enjoy the day, Ann