Finished Object :: Cloud Quilt

I finished my Cloud Quilt, woohoo! I am soooo happy with it. SO happy!

I had the idea for the Cloud Quilt almost a year ago (wow, that long!) and first blogged about it in October. I started collecting cloud fabrics and in late December I had a decent pile of different cloud fabrics. In January and March I was cutting the fabrics and making decisions about the design. In April I cut the last addition to the cloud stash and on my birthday I spent some time finishing the quilt top. I shared the piecing process and the pattern for the top in May. In early July I finished the back of the quilt. And last week there was the list of cloud fabrics I used.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. For hardcore quilters it may seem an awful long time to make a quilt, but obviously I had to build up a cloud stash first. That was partly due to looking for fabrics (and waiting for them to become available in some cases) and I guess I'm kinda slow at cutting fabrics. I needed A LOT of little 2½" squares and 4½" squares.

But in a way I like that it took so long. It meant I could enjoy working with the clouds over a period of time.

So last week I went out to take some pictures of the quilt. At first I had slung it over a gate to a field (top picture), but it was quite low and meant it would only show half of the quilt. So I wandered a bit further to this small copse of trees. A couple of them were just the right distance apart. And luckily I came prepared with some string and bulldog clips so I could hang it up.

It looked quite pretty there in the dappled sunlight, but it made it kinda difficult to see the fabrics properly.

This is the back. For this I used mostly 8½" squares, with a couple of strips made from leftover 2½" and 4½" squares. I wanted to use up everything!

Here, you can see the smaller squares a bit bitter. I wasn't completely sure how that would turn our but I really like how it looks like they have almost sneaked into the back. Secret small squares. :-)

The front! I love all the happy little clouds together. All different but somehow they all go together.

The layout may look completely random, but if you look closer there are actually crosses made only from the 2½" squares and in each of those crosses there is a cross made from squares of the same fabric. In this post there is a sketch of how it is put together.

I thought I had managed to sew all the squares together right side up, but then I spotted that a couple of them are upside down. I can't exactly say why, but that just made me really happy. Maybe I'm weird like that. :-)

I tied the quilt instead of quilting it 'properly'. I just love the look of that technique. And of course this quilt had a very handy grid built straight into it.

Gratuitous picture of the back.

And folded up quilt.

Close up. Mmmm... squishy soft quilt.

The binding is made from polka dotted fabrics. All different ones. I had thought of using stripes, but I didn't have a lot of stripes in my stash. But there was enough dots. And neon dots!

Awwww! This one has never been interested in any other quilts laying around the house, but she was all over this one. So cute. :-)

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