Friday 27 July 2012

Peacocks in the Garden – it’s finished!

Okay so after my last post whinging about having this WiP still hanging over my head… I finally got busy and unpicked the wonky quilting. Then I thought hmm, maybe the puckering is caused by lousy basting. So I rebasted it. And requilted it. Only to have the same puckering occur. Damnit! So at this point I convinced myself that vertical lines only worked perfectly. I seriously need to make friends with a long arm quilter.

Anyways, there’s more to the tale of woe but I’m not going to let it spoil the pretty. So let’s just forget the dramas this quilt caused with it’s cheeky bad behaviour in the quilting areas and enjoy how pretty it looks.

Peacocks in the Garden 1

The pattern is Garden Fence by Hyacinth Quilt Designs. Gorgeous pattern and easy to do. I made mine with a charm pack of Cuzco for the centre squares. Love the peacocks and flowers in this line.

Peacocks in the Garden centre square

The back is pieced too. That’s a personal preference – I love a pieced back – I think it just adds something extra to the quilt. Why should the front hog all the pretty anyways?

Peacocks in the Garden back

The polka dots look quite cute too. They are a dark pink which almost matches the dark pink solid.

Peacocks in the Garden with the backing

So the quilting is just vertical lines, through the white sashing and straight through the middle of the blocks. Very ordinary but it does the job!

Peacocks in the Garden quilting

I bound it with more white fabric. I found after I had quilted this for the second time, that my backing wasn’t big enough. It fit perfectly for the top half, but it seems the cut of fabric I had wasn’t exactly straight. Yeah and there was no way I was unpicking that quilting again! So I trimmed the quilt down a bit and lost some of the white border. But that’s okay. The binding being white hides it nicely.
I also tried a new binding method. Completely by accident hehe. I normally sew the binding to the back, then fold to the front and sew, which leaves a line of stitching around the edge on the back of the quilt. I don’t mind that. I claim it as a design feature.

Peacocks i the Garden binding from the frontPeacocks in the Garden binding on the back

But for some reason with this quilt, I sewed it to the front first, only realising my error when I went to sew it down. On the back. Argh! I didn’t want the line of stitching on the front. So I stitched in the ditch on the front, and managed to catch the binding (only just in some places!) on the back. I did have a couple of small areas that didn’t catch but with a touch up, everything is sewn down nicely.

Peacocks in the Garden all fall down

Had enough of the photos of the Peacocks in the Garden quilt? I’m just showing off now because I’m so pleased it’s finished.
TGIFF 2_new

Linking this up with TGIFF which is over at Stop That Owl this week.


And… did you know there’s a new linky party in town?  Diane at From Blank Pages has started one to share your GunnaDo projects. Okay that’s not her word, it’s mine. You know those “I’m gunna do that project one day”. This linky party is a celebration of projects yet to be created! Do you have some of those? I have a few.

Here are my next three immediate ones. So I don’t have a lot of WiPs but I do have a lot of GunnaDos.

This one is actually printed and has the fabrics chosen to try out. A little paper pieced train to go with my transport themed patterns (you can see some of the others here)

Train 1st attempt

This one is for a soon to come Blog Hop I’m joining – no more details yet but it’s going to be like totally rad!Winking smile
Friendship no lines

And this one is just in quilt layout at the moment while I play around with EQ7. The lovely Marieka has offered to test it for me though so I better get a move on and make it into pattern form.

Stars in purple

How about you? Have a yet to be created project to share and chat about? You can link it up over here!
from-blank-pages-linky-button3

23 comments:

  1. Peacocks in the garden is just beautiful!!! Love love love!
    Can't wait to try out those paper pieced purple stars for you!

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  2. That quilt was determined to beat you right to the very end. Glad to see that you get the better of it though, it looks lovely.

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  3. LOVE Peacocks in the Garden - the colours are so pretty. And as for your oops with the binding - that is how Rita at Red Pepper Quilts always does hers - I tried it once but it was beyond my accuracy ability, so well done you!!

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  4. Lol, what a battle you've had with that quilt! :) it is gorgeous though! I agree, I love a pieced back. It looks great, beautiful colors :)

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  5. I love that quilt, and the name is fantastic! Hmmm, don't think I will start sharing my 'Gunna Do' list - that could take quite a while! Thanks for joining in TGIFF :)

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  6. I totally love your Peacocks in the Garden! The pattern and colours are lovely. Don't discourage about puckers, we all get them and the more you work on it the easier it gets. This quilt is a real beauty.

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  7. I just adore that Garden Fence pattern. I did one for a baby recently. Yours looks great and you got it done in the end!
    The train block is going to be so great. My son would want a whole quilt out of those!

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  8. I have been looking forward to seeing this finished. It's absolutely beautiful. The colours are just perfect. Nice work :)

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  9. I love how your quilt turned out, well done with the re-basting, I've done it once too! There's no better feeling than finish a project like that! Hope you feel it too! :) Your designs look awesome, I adore your blue and white design, I'm looking forward to seeing it in cloth one day :)

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  10. Gorgeous finish! I love the ones you are planning too! Rita from Red Pepper quilts has a tutorial on sewing binding on like that and I love it. I find those Clover Wonder Clips are amazing when used for this.

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  11. That is such a beautiful quilt!!! Love the colors and the pattern.
    I think pieced back are fantastic!:)
    Carol

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  12. What a gorgeous finish! The prints and colours look really fresh and summery against the white! The quilting is simple yet very effective =D

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  13. Your quilt turned out beautifully! Very pretty colors and of course I love the touch of polka dots on the back.
    Your "GunnaDo" projects look fun.

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  14. I just blogged about the Diamond Star - it is such a fabulous block!

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  15. I'm wondering if I'm a noreplyblogger when I reply using my name and url... Just commenting again and would love it if you could tell me if I'm still a noreplyblogger. Thanks Kristy. I look forward to seeing that firetruck! :)

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  16. Beautiful! I really love this quilt

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  17. Congrats on finishing the Peacock quilt.
    I love going through the linky's and see the work of others.
    I've been making it in to my craft room more this past week than I have in total over the last 3 months. It's a good feeling, and I hope I can keep it up.
    I'm also attempting to organize, but kind of at a loss there. I know how I want things, it's just a matter of getting them there...and having the shelving and such that I need.

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  18. This is beautiful. I understand about some of the difficulties you had with it. Quilting isn't for the weak! It takes a strong person to deal with how temperamental quilting can be. I'm going through it right now with my Dogwood Blossom quilt. It's truly a love-hate relationship! Anyways, I wanted you to know...your quilt is lovely.

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  19. Oh Pretty Peacocks!! Congratulations - you got there!

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  20. It's so beautiful! Hooray for making "mistakes" and just making it work (re: binding). :)

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  21. Love your quilt!! And can I just say that your rad pattern is definitely rad!!! That is awesome! I couldn't remember if I commented already or not, but I guess I've just been thinking about it about 100 times a day instead. lol. Thanks so much for linking up! :) Now to go find your other message to reply to. ;)

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  22. Such a beautiful quilt - and such a great idea to use a charm pack for the centres of the blocks!

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