Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Chinese Coins with Rabbit Baby Quilt Finished

Spiral quilting is successful. After considering another centered spiral for this quilt, I chose to use concentric circles here. I've done it before. Instructions on how/where I started are at the end of this post from 2015.

Narrow Chinese Coin columns are sashed with solid pastels. A narrow black border and a wide green and yellow striped border frame the quilt. The silhouette of a rabbit in a large floral print on white sits in the bottom right corner.
Chinese Coins with Rabbit baby quilt (CCXIV)

It much easier to start with a gentle quarter circle starting halfway down one side and then echo quilt along each side than to try to echo from a tight corner. When you look closely, it's obviously not marked. I simply eyeballed a width based on the foot. Those wobbles are not visible in the overall photo and will disappear even more as the quilt is washed, used, and loved to pieces.

Concentric quarter circles are quilted starting at the top left corner of the quilt
Chinese Coins with Rabbit
baby quilt (CCXIV) detail

The back is a collection of blues. Not quite as dull as this photo shows. Again, the narrow border was stitched-in-the-ditch first to keep it nice and straight.

The back is a collection of four different blue prints.
Chinese Coins with Rabbit
baby quilt (CCXIV) back

Here's a closeup of the bunny. The large floral print looks like Spring. It was fun to use fabric that is not realistic. {I'm such a stick-in-the-mud, I usually try to match real items with their real colors.}

The folded quilt shows the  of rabbit on the front, portions of the back, and yellow print binding.
Chinese Coins with Rabbit baby quilt (CCXIV)
detail of rabbit and binding

Looking through the binding strips, these yellows worked best. I even pulled some choices from my stash to see if anything worked better but the quilt says, "Enough. Give me a soft, low-key edge, please."


Quilt Details
Size: 41" x 43"
Design: Chinese Coins
Batting: Mountain Mist 100% cotton
Thread: dark and light blue Gutterman 50 wt cotton
Quilting: Stitch in the Ditch and spiral quilting with walking foot

I am still reading St. Clair's The Golden Thread and finished the chapter on Vikings last week. She writes about the longship discovery at Gokstad which I think Kaja visited last year although I can't find her post. She had some great photos.

 Kassia also mentions Ibn Fadlan who I recall from Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead. The title sounds more gruesome than the book really is. Published in the 70's, it mixes Ibn's journals with the story of Beowulf. I remember the first two chapters were difficult to read as he wrote it in an archaic transcript; however, it then switches to modern language which made it much more easy and interesting. Michael added addendums to his early novels that listed his sources. Oh, how I loved to research those. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

26 comments:

Julierose said...

Love that floral bunny and the quilting is lovely hugs, Julierose

Quiltdivajulie said...

What a super baby quilt - the bunny adds so much (love the floral print) and your quilting is wonderful.

Kate @ Smiles From Kate said...

A lovely Chinese Coins quilt and the rabbit is a wonderful addition. I’ve never quilted concentric circles from a corner before, it works great. Thank you for the tip of starting partway up, I would have struggled from the corner, your way makes great sense.

patty a. said...

Another cute finish! You quilting adds a lot of interest to the quilt.

Robin said...

It is so sweet. I bet it was fun to quilt.

Janie said...

Congratulations on your beautiful finish, yes, the little rabbit is sweet. Thanks for the quilting tip, your quilting is great.
The books sound good, thanks for the review.

Sue said...

Love it. I have saved your idea of the quilting design. So simple, but effective!

Mystic Quilter said...

Oh I do love that little bunny!!I', pleased you explained how you began the concentric circle quilting, I probably would have begun right in the corner and then got into trouble. I'd love to try this on a small piece one day.

Marie said...

Very sweet. What a great idea to add the bunny.

Quilting Babcia said...

Such a sweet finish. The bunny addition is the perfect final touch.

Preeti said...

Brilliant!!! I will most probably copy that idea of quilting. Kudos to you!!!

Mel Beach said...

The bunny is a wonderful addition...and theo concentric quarter circles is fabulous!!

audrey said...

I really like the concentric circles. Been thinking about doing something similar for one of my quilts only of course, I will have to do it by hand! Just thinking about trying it on the machine makes my head hurt.:) Very sweet quilt. I know that's probably not the word you want to hear, but the size of the quilt with the little floral bunny just says sweet. lol Perfect for a baby quilt!

Ann said...

Thanks, Julie. I'm glad it's ready to gift.

Ann said...

Thank you, Julie. The bunny should make a baby happy.

Ann said...

Good luck with the quilting. Starting at a middle radius made this an easy design to quilt.

Ann said...

Thanks, Patty. I'm finding I like these simple quilting designs much better because my fabrics are usually busy enough.

Ann said...

It was relaxing and quick - just what I wanted. Thanks for writing, Robin.

Ann said...

I’m delighted you enjoyed this post, Janie.

Ann said...

I hope to see how you use it soon, Sue. Enjoy.

Ann said...

Thanks, Maureen. This design is easier than making a full spiral. I hope to hear how it works for you.

Ann said...

Thanks, Marie.

Ann said...

Thanks. The bunny makes a good addition to a baby quilt.

Ann said...

Thanks, Preeti. I look forward to seeing how you use this.

Ann said...

Thanks, Mel. It was fun to finish.

Ann said...

Sweet is often a good description for a baby quilt, especially when the recipient is not knowledgeable about quilting. And the bunny really grounds the sweetness. It will be interesting to see how you hand quilt concentric circles. I am finding that echo quilting designs show up much better on my busy fabrics.