Cathedral Window Quilt: Complete!

It's finished!!  I know I got a bit behind on posting each of my blocks in the Cathedral Window Sampler Quilt-along.  You can see the detail on each individual block here in my flickr set.  I love how this came out so much that I decided to take it to one of my favorite spots for a little photo shoot.  I made this for my own living room, with fabrics from Fly a Kite and Outfoxed.  I used Maureen Cracknell Handmade's quilt-as-you go method, so when the quilt along was over all I had to do was sew my blocks together.

I added a cathedral window block of my own, based around a little cathedral window I already had waiting in my stash for just the right project.  Then I added two plain 12.5" squares of fabric to make a 3x4 quilt.  And I even remembered to add a label.

The backing is from Loulouthi by Anna Maria Horner.  I had it in my stash, and it happened to go perfectly.  I used the "self-binding" technique for the backing for the first time.  Basically, I trimmed the backing to 1.5" larger than the quilt (after quilting the backing fabric to the rest of the quilt) and then folded the raw edge of the backing in to meet the raw edge of the front.  Then I pressed the folded edge over the front and machine stitched all the way around.  Voila!  No hand sewing involved.  In the whole quilt.  Hooray for that!!

Here's a little better look at the quilting on the front...although the bright sunshine this morning makes some of it hard to see.

Perfect for a cold Alaskan morning at the beach!  And since the sand is frozen, it didn't even get dirty.

Cathedral WIndow Quilt Along, Block 1

Now that I have gotten in the groove of having the kids back in school and the hubby away, it's time to start working on some projects for myself.  I have a rough plan in mind for a new quilt for my bed based on the Uneven Coins block in the book Block Party. I have a whole stack of Indie, plus yards of navy solid to use with it.  I just need to make myself cut into it and get started.

I spotted this Cathedral Window quilt-a-long last week and thought maybe I'd use it to make some pillows to go with my quilt.  I like "a-longs" because I usually learn new techniques and make something I otherwise wouldn't.  Today was Block 1, a layered cathedral window from Sara at Sew Sweetness.  I love her choice of fabrics, as usual.  I also really like the look of the finished block.  But when I realized how much fabric goes into one 12" block (almost half a yard, really), I put away my special quilt stash and pulled out some things from the back of my fabric drawer to use first.  I paid attention to my print directions and order of assembly to make the design of the block stand out more than it does in Sara's scrappy version.  I really like the end result.  However, there are 5 layers of fabric in most spots on the block. That means you sew through 10 layers to join the four squares together.  I felt like I should have pulled out my walking foot.  I can't imagine making a quilt using this block.  It would be very heavy.  It would make a great pillow, though, which is what mine may become.  Eventually.

I'm looking forward to the next block on Thursday, and will probably use the same fabrics as long as I have enough of them.  In the end maybe I'll go back and choose my favorite blocks to go with my quilt.   That I still need to start.  Hmph.