soul blossom quilt. done. :)

soul blossom quilt.

last JULY, i strolled into karen gray’s (now the little general) looking for some inspiration for my next quilt. i wanted to make a king quilt for our bedroom. even though i had no kids with me, i still made an impulse purchase of a fat quarter bundle of amy butler’s soul blossom line. 33 fat quarters. 96 bucks.

i got home and immediately had buyer’s remorse. i wasn’t sure i liked it. i finally decided on a plan and got started. then, i hated the plan. fortunately, i hadn’t gotten too far yet, when i happened upon this tutorial from fresh lemons quilts. i adjusted the measurements, to make bigger blocks. and the layout, because i would be making more blocks. and used the blocks i had already made, of course. 🙂

after i got the top finished, it sat for a very long time, because i wasn’t too excited about piecing the back. once that was done, it sat some more, because i wasn’t sure about how i wanted to quilt it (send it off and pay someone to do the dirty work, try my hand at the long arm, or cram it through my machine). i decided to do it on my machine, because it’s free. then, i had to find a space big enough to lay this sucker out and baste it (a classroom at calvary baptist).

anyhow, here’s some pics…

view from the retaining wall.
soul blossom

up close.
soul blossom quilt up close

pieced back. originally, i had enough of the blue fabric (on the far side) to put on both sides. then, i trimmed the blocks a bit more than i had planned for and needed a border on the top to restore the quilt to the king size i was shooting for. so, piecing the back was in order.
the back...

i knew i would never succeed at perfect straight lines. and even if i did, then it would draw attention to my not-perfectly-straight piecing. i was nervous to try anything else on this thing, since it was so big. so, i went for “organic” straight lines. only, instead of looking “organic”, they just look “sloppy”. not the look i was really going for. but, i’m not ripping anything out.

you can see the quilting best on the solid section in the back.
quilting lines

by the time i was ready to make a decision on my binding, soul blossom fabric was hard to get your hands on. i liked a different print, but had to make do with this one. i actually really like it.
soul blossom quilt binding.
(excuse all the unclipped threads. i was excited to get this post up.)

anyhow, i’m glad to have this off my plate almost a year later. it was one of those projects that i never really felt super excited about. the more i looked at it, the more i got tired of it. i kept hoping that when it was all done, i would love it. i figured, worst case, i could sell it on etsy. i don’t lovelove it. but, i am relieved it’s done.

and it looks good on our bed…
soul blossom.  on the bed.

it’s the last king quilt i’ll do for a very long while.

6 Replies to “soul blossom quilt. done. :)”

  1. Sarah I love it! The quilting looks great! I love the binding fabric! It really turned out great! Cant wait to see it in person!

  2. Ditto on what Colleen said. This is super awesome! Once you wash it and it crinkles, you will love it! Great job!!!!!!

    And man, those king quilts are a workout!

  3. Kristin Boone says:

    You may not lovelove it but I do!!! I think it is amazing. Well done!

  4. I think it’s gorgeous. It looks clean and fresh (does that sound totally bizarre?). I know what you mean about organic lines. I did them on a big quilt once and it looked sloppy to me too. Yours look better than mine do! 😉

  5. amy @ house of bad cats says:

    Thanks for linking up on my blog! Your quilt looks amazing!

  6. um seriously, this one is amazing. it might be my fav.

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