candy swirls quilt :: complete

Donation quilt number two is finished!  I call this one Candy Swirls because the brightly colored circles and such remind me of candy.  And I couldn't be happier with Miss Candy!  Well, that's not exactly true.  I wish I would have left some of the printed fabric as much larger pieces (I really love that design), but I was going for scrappy-pieced columns.  I think I ended up with more of a grid pattern since the width of the swirl pieces didn't vary enough, but live and learn.

I will admit that I almost tore the top apart after I pieced it together.  I scrutinized it for a while thinking about how much I really didn't like it.  I wanted to go with white sashing for a crisp, clean look but you have to know your audience.  Kids can be kinda dirty.  Green was probably a better choice.  But as much as I didn't like it, I thought it might look different once quilted.

And man, am I glad I waited!  Since I knew I would never see this quilt again, I decided to try free motion stippling.  I've never done it before, and I thought that if it didn't turn out well, I could give the quilt away and never have to look at the nightmare again.  But I cannot believe how much I love it!  I think this has turned into my favorite quilt so far.  The stippling brings it all together and makes the quilt look like one large piece instead of a bunch of smaller (ill-placed) pieces.  And I echo my husband's sentiments when I told him how much I loved the way this one turned out: it's too bad I can't keep it.  But I'm sure it will go to a great home.

I simply went with light yellow fleece as the backing for this one.  I was trying to save time and money by avoiding the batting and backing.  Plus, these quilts are for children and are required to be crib size or smaller.  To me, that's a drag-around size, so I don't want them to be too heavy.  The fleece is soft and adds just the right amount of thinkness.

Looks like a jigsaw puzzle . . .

I will absolutely stipple again but it took me just over 4 hours to quilt this little one.  I think my stippling is tighter than others I have seen but it works with this quilt because the quilt is so small.  I should probably try to spread out the curves a little more to make it easier on myself.  As with the Elephant Parade quilt, I think the tighter curves and loops were just more comfortable for a beginner with limited space around her machine.

And look who managed to sneak into yet another photo . . .

The Candy Swirls quilt measures 38.5 x 32.5 inches and will be donated to Project Night Night along with the Elephant Parade quilt.