Harvest - My Modern Maples Quilt is Finished!

Success! I finally managed to steal a few hours during the daytime this week to take pictures of my finished maple leaf quilt. I have been calling this one November Rain, because I thought I'd finish in November...ha! I'm now calling it Harvest, but it's not labeled, so I guess I can call it whatever I want.  

 

 

Last October was my month to be Queen Bee for the New Quilt Bloggers Bee (we all met during Plum and June's New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop). I asked the group to make modern maples blocks finishing at 12 or 18 inches, so I could add additional gray to fill in areas and wouldn't have to worry about everything lining up as much.

 

 

It took a couple months for me to figure out how to piece everything together. The plan was to piece them together with some plain gray solids to even things up. I ended up with 9 big blocks, and 13 small blocks, so I couldn't exactly split up the top into quadrants and piece them together that way.

 

 

I cut up some graph paper, and played with the pieces until I came up with a layout which I thought was fairly balanced (I love puzzles!). It took a while to get it all together, but now I feel like I'm practically an expert with y-seams! At least they don't make me nervous any more.

 



I quilted it with wavy horizontal lines every couple of inches or so. I didn't measure anything, but just filled in the spaces until it looked like there was enough quilting.

 

 

For the binding I used some Cotton and Steel basics, leftover from a couple of the blocks I made on the top. I used mammoth flannel for the back, and I really love it! It is super soft, and I think the plaid fits in with the fall-theme on the front of the quilt. My husband has requested that I use flannel to back all future quilts.

 

We've gotten a lot of use out of this for the last few weeks--it is "cold" here in Hollywood, and we need quilts to stay warm in this 60 degree weather. It's not quite bed-sized (around 80 x 80) but it works as an extra layer of warmth on our bed, or the sofa. I was glad to finish it while the weather here is still cool.

 

 

As you can see, my wavy quilting had a bit of an influence on the plaid backing, and the nice straight lines of plaid are a little wavy now. Oh well--this was made for snuggling under!

 

 

 

This is definitely my new favorite quilt. I loved the variety of blocks, and having different sizes to work with made things a lot easier for me--I am realizing more and more that I'm much more comfortable with improv style piecing.

 

A big thank you to the ladies who helped piece this quilt--My first bee has been a success! I hope you're enjoying it as much as I have. I can't wait to see everyone else's finished quilts.

 

Blocks pieced by:

 

Pam @ Sewing Wilde

Lin @ Lin's Quilts

Debbie @ Quilting Makes my Heart Sing

Jill @ Pie Lady Quilts

Stephanie @ Late Night Quilter

Christina @ Wips and Tuts

Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs

Afton @ Quilting Mod

 

Also, this is my first posted finish for the 2015 FAL. 

This week I'm linking up with  NTT Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and the Weekly Inspiration Linky Party at Nini and The Sea