Crazy Quilt

This months Island Batik Ambassador challenge is the Crazy Quilts. I have never made a crazy quilt before and have never seen one that interested me. I was a little worried about this challenge as I was not as inspired as I wanted to be, but come along with me and lets see how this goes.

Its the month of April, so what instantly came to mind was Spring, Easter, Tulips, green grass and cottages. I decided I wanted to do a Hare and a small cottage in the distant. I of course wanted to use foundation paper piecing to make the two designs. I designed the Hare with bright spring colors and then designed the cottage with calm muted browns.

This is just a quick design I did, and in the end I made the grass on the cottage size all large pieces and none of the small pieces. Other then that it all was about the same design in the end. I used several different green grass batiks, several different blue batiks, three or four browns for the house, and several bright colors for the Hare. I used a ton of scraps from the last few months and from my 5 inch strip packages.

Once I had all the paper sections all cut out, and fabric picked out; I finally got to work sewing them all up.

The best part about crazy quilts is it really didn't matter which color blue or green i used, as long as it was random. That made this FPP pattern a lot easier to sew.

I trimmed up all the sections and assembled the blocks.

After the blocks are assembled I then have to do my least favorite part, which is pulling the paper. Its not too hard with this one since the pieces are all pretty good size and not my typical small pieces. I was able to get all the paper removed while watch one of my TV shows.

For my crazy quilt I used the black batik fabric as my backing and Hobbs Cotton batting. The Hobbs batting is so soft and worked wonderful with all the bulky seams.

I spent several hours using all three of the Aurifil Water Lily cotton 50 wt thread collection. I used my Juki HZL - LB5100 which has tons of different fancy stitches. I enjoyed exploring all the different stitches and styles. I haven't had a ton of chances to use the stitches so any chance to use them is a chance I am going to enjoy.

I matched my binding as close as I could to the green and blue areas. I again used scraps for the binding as well. This is a great way to use up the scraps that I had left over from the actual piecing.

Once the binding is on the front I like to sit and hand sew the back of the binding down. Which only took a few minutes since the quilt isn't huge; again, I just sit and watch a TV show while I hand sew it.

The finished quilt turned out exactly how I envisioned it. I took the opportunity to get outside in this gorgeous weather and take some photos with my blooming tulips. My Tulips started to bloom earlier this month and have been popping up ever since. My orange/coral colored tulips are about 3-4 inches big, they are my largest tulips yet.

I always enjoy showing off the backs and this one is extra pretty with the variegated thread.

This bold Hare is just gorgeous. I love the bright batiks against the muted greens and soothing blues.

The finished full quilt in all its glory:

I have never made a crazy quilt and the ones I have seen never really called to me. However, when I put a little bit of myself into the quilt I realize how much I love the finished quilt. This is a great quilt to add to my April/Easter decorations and probably will go up on the wall each year.

Thanks to Hobbs Batting, Island Batik and most importantly the amazing Aurifil for the wonderful thread.

Thanks everyone for checking out my quilt and I hope you will come back next month to see what I get to do with a new tool. I am making a quilt that is not my typical style, so stay tuned because I am sure it will be an interesting adventure for me.

Stay safe, stay healthy and be kind.