Paris In Spring Time Quilt

Back in September I started working on a spring themed quilt. I was inspired by the little bit of sunshine peeking through after a long and grey Melbourne winter, so I whipped up a quilt top...then left it on the UFO pile for months.

During December I finally got some time to sit down and get it done, and I was driven by the decision to give it to Lucy for Christmas.

I made up a bunch of blocks with three 3 1/2" strips, that came together to make eventual 9" blocks. All of them were created from scraps of fat quarters I had in my stash, in pink and aqua colours, which I seem to be constantly drawn to.

I used white for the sashing, and somewhere along the line started calling it my Paris in Spring Time quilt, mainly due to two of the fabrics that are featured in the quilt - the bikes that you can see above, and the Paris print that I've used in the quilt back.

Both these fabrics came from my sponsor Fabric Fusion. The print with the bikes is called La Vie D'Amour Paris Streets and and the above print is from the same range but it appears to be sold out now. I love the cats and all the small floral motifs intertwined with the Paris landmarks, it gives such a fresh springy feel, hence the name of the quilt!

I didn't have enough of one particular pink fabric for the binding, so I decided to use the leftovers from the fabric I used in the blocks and create a pink scrappy binding. I love how it came out and I think scrappy bindings will feature a lot more in my future quilts!

The polka dots I used for the backing (pink) and the border on the front (aqua) were both from Spotlight. I wish I had bought a bit more, both seem to be sold out now - always the way.

One of my favourite fabrics is the floral I've used in the centre of this block. I bought a fat quarter of it in a bargain bit ages ago and it had no selvedge - anyone recognise it? I'd like to buy some more. I also love the Hello Tokyo Cherry Blossom fabric on the left, it coordinates so well with many fabrics and is a nice change from the usual florals or polka dots - instead it has both! It's also from Fabric Fusion.

One achievement for me was this was the first large scale quilt that I quilted with free motion stippling. The quilting is very basic, but I'm really happy with how it looks and I'm getting better and more confident with free motion every time I try it.

Sorry I couldn't take a pic of the whole quilt - my helper wasn't available! Plus I only had a small window of time to take the pictures, Lucy has slept under it every night and every nap since Christmas!