hazel’s royal court meadowland quilt.

this is the tale of that time when i spontaneously joined a quilt along on instagram and whipped out a quilt in record time, using only (mostly) fabrics from my stash, which makes it feel like it was free.

i joined the meadowland quilt along on instagram, hoping it would give me some inspiration and accountability. also, i was hoping to win a prized, but i never do.

for the focus of the quilt, i decided to use some really cute fabric that i scored on our recent trip to charleston. the royal court portraits fabric (from the meet the royal court line by jill mcdonald) made for perfect little fussy cuts in the centers of the block. hazel was quick to claim this future quilt for her own, and helped me pick out the rest of the fabrics to coordinate.

i started out by pacing myself and keeping on track with the quilt along. but the blocks came together easily, and i knew i would be in florida for the last bit of the contest, so i maybe got ahead of myself a bit.

before i knew it, i was basting a whole quilt, under the watchful eye of the future owner.

when deciding on a binding, i couldn’t have been happier to discover that this long hoarded rainbow stripe would make the most perfect ever finishing touch.

i have discovered that the stupid burnt orange built in kitchen table is actually a great place to quilt. and attaching binding, while i’m at it.

some folks hate hand binding. i don’t mind it. it’s an activity i can do while hanging with the kids and watching baking competitions. and i will always prefer the look of hand binding over machine. ruby is a very helpful assistant. also, here’s a glimpse of the backing, which i didn’t photograph i guess. i was able to use a large hunk of another long hoarded fabric, perfectly matched rainbow-y dandelions.

a very happy recipient was glad to pose for a pic.

i’m quite happy with the turnout. it’s so bright and happy. the original pattern calls for the fabrics to repeat throughout, but i’m more of a scrappy sort than that, so there’s no duplicates. it was still hard to get a good layout though. and just when i thought i had, i would notice that two knights were next to each other. it was like a giant logic puzzle.

i decided to do a grid pattern for the quilting, which you can see in the next photo. i’m feeling quite proud of myself, since it’s mostly straight and mostly uniform and i think looks good for this quilt.

so. i finished the quilt just before we went to florida for a couple of weeks. (our last hurrah before the end of the world). i had the bright idea to take the quilt along, for possible epic scenery photo shoots. at our first stop, i talked isaac into holding it for me for some attempts. unfortunately, it proved quite windy, so my possible instagram entry for “quilt in the wild” would have to wait, but i was all set for the “quilt photo shoot fail” entry.

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then, of course, i forgot to ever take the quilt anywhere we went, so a really cool scenic photo would never happen. after florida, back home, i enlisted the help of the recipient kid for a “kids on quilt” entry and the resident dog, for a “pets on quilt” entry. (spoiler alert: i didn’t win any prizes.)

anyhooo. hazel is happy. i have a finish. and a bit of sewjo, which has been dashed by the coronavirus and the feeling that i can’t sneak away for even a moment to sew without my house getting trashed or my kids declaring nuclear war on each other. so, it’s possible this is my last quilt until the before the end of the world happens.