Shady Lanes

Yay!  Shady Lanes is done, labeled, photographed and delivered! 

It was a big surprise for my friend.  She loves it.

This was a fun quilt to put together.  It had been on my bucket list for a couple of years and I finally accumulated enough 2-inch squares to make a throw quilt.  I've seen some patterns that all the HST the same color (or even the whole thing in three colors), but I had enough to scrap the whole thing.  Solid black was the perfect color to use on the diamonds.

The quilting is easiest to see on the back (which is great - the front is busy enough as is!).  I quilted big leaves/flames on the crossroads and a mix of swirls and leaves in the squares in-between.  I changed my mind at least twice on how I wanted to quilt this, including ripping out a chunk of my first attempt.  

I switched to a simpler pattern inside the diamonds.  Each little square was quilted that created a pattern of intertwined circles in the 4x4 square.  I did scrolls in the corners.  Quilting would have been easier and faster to have done the whole quilt like that.  But I really like how it turned out with the different patterns inside and outside the diamonds.

The pale grey thread on the black was more contrast than I was willing to do (and risk showing all my mistakes).  This is where I had that awful time with the cinnamon colored thread and had to rip it all out.  This green thread was better behaved.  I'm really pleased with how it pops up close, but doesn't stand out at a distance.  

I saw the diamond quilting design from Tish's Adventures in Wonderland.  But why repeat one thing when you can do a bunch?  I decided to have each diamond get it's own motif.  I had lots of practice from quilting the Icy Waters quilt, so I decided to keep going.  When will I learn to keep it simple?

I discovered that some designs worked better than others.  Loopy stuff could be tricky to work around the corners without getting bunched up or leaving big empty spots.  Some of them, like the feathers, were easier and looked way better than I had anticipated. 

I also tried to do the straight edge around each diamond with a ruler.  Ruler work looks so great, and I'm dying to try more of it, but me and my machine just fight with each other every time I attempt it.  In the end, it was much easier to chalk the lines and follow that than it was to line up the ruler for those edges (but the edges look so cool!).

I pushed myself to get this quilted because of the looming pile of unfinished quilts.  (Lesson 1 - don't backlog too many sandwiched quilts.)  So when I had skipped stitches, I continued to quilt, rather than stop immediately, undo the bad stitching, tie it off, bury the threads and start again.  I was confident I could find the spots and fix them later.  (Lesson 2 - don't keep sewing when you see bad stitching.)  Bad, bad idea.  I carefully inspected the whole quilt, clipped out and restitched a bunch of places.  Then found more when I bound it.  And then, as I photographed the finished quilt, I saw a half-dozen more gleaming in the sunlight.

OMG, NO!

I swear, at this point I must have found them all.  I bundled up the quilt and shipped it, though, before I could obsess over it any longer.  (Hopefully you won't find any more gaps in the quilting!)

Needless to say, I'm being much more careful with my current quilt.

I may have been DONE with this quilt and ready to part with it, but had it been smaller, it would have stayed with me.  I really do love how it looks.  I hope to make a wall hanging with this pattern in the not-too-distant future.

Sharing with:
Wendy's Quilts and More - Peacock Party
Love Laugh Quilt - Monday Making
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle and Thread Thursday