Sew Intertwined Quilt

Way back in July 2012, I joined the Sew Intertwined Quiltalong. I liked the pattern and was excited to try my first all solids quilt. Things got off to a rocky start. The first step was to make a large dresden. I love dresden blocks, but I miscounted the blades which led to a colour arrangement that I wasn't very happy with.

Still, I continued on to the next set of blocks. These were fairly simple blocks made up of four patches and HSTs and they came together quickly.  The final set of blocks could either be paper pieced to pieced using y-seams. I was a fairly new quilter and y-seams felt scary so I planned to paper-piece and even got started on it. But it was ardorous and I put it aside. Over the last few years I've looked at the blocks and thought to myself, "I should really finish these."

This August, I finally admitted to myself that I was never going to complete those paper-pieced blocks. I also admitted that the dresden wasn't working for me either. But, could I do something with the simple blocks that I did like...?

Indeed, I could! I added borders to the blocks to make the quilt front, and made an improv log cabin using the dresden block as the centre for the back. I added in an extra block at the top for fun. I quilted it with straight lines with random spacing, which is one of my go-to quilting choices because it always looks great and it's fast too!  Finally, I bound this quilt with a happy rainbow striped binding.

It's surprising how much I adore this quilt, given it's not-so-great beginnings. I love the colours and that it's done completely in solids (all Kona). I gave this quilt to my Nana and she loved it too. I hope it will keep her warm this winter when she's sitting and crocheting in front of the tv.