Well, life happened… My machine broke right before the holidays, I had the flu and then pneumonia, and then more and more. Seriously, Life.

I returned from QuiltCon feeling very energized and determined. I felt like I could finish all of my half finished projects and feel great afterwards. Well, ha, Life happened again…

but beforehand I finished this awesome quilt!!!

It’s kind of a cheater hexagon quilt since it’s actually half hexagons sewn together by machine. Instead of the hand sewing craziness I normally do. I used my AccuQuilt GO! Half Hexagon Die to cut out the pieces fast and accurately. I then arranged all the pieces on the floor until I liked the way they looked and took a photo. I put each row in a pile and chain pieced the entire quilt top using the photo as a reference.

The finished quilt top measures 60″x72″. The back is my all time favorite Widescreen in Gray by Carolyn Friedlander and the binding is the normal width version in black.

I ended up quilting the whole thing using around 15 different colored threads in straight lines of different widths. I just couldn’t decide on a perfect color, so I did a bunch. It turned out great and might be my new favorite way to quilt these quilts!!

Due to the weather, and the fact that I wanted to give the quilt to my sister as soon as I finished, I kind of rushed taking photos of the finished piece. I wish I could have shown the back, or the texture better! Oh well, I’m happy I have some photos to share and I’m super super happy my sister has a quilt to cuddle with!!

I’m also excited its a little brighter and warmer outside, which means more quilt photos for me to post!!!

Well, as you can see, it came out beautifully! So much so, I have been obsessed with sewing curves ever since. (Check back tomorrow and I’ll show you another curved piecing project).

The top is all fabric I had on hand. I love just picking from my Stash for projects like this. It gives it a more homey, scrappy feel. Also, as you can see, I have a thing for buying black and gray fabric, so it was neat seeing them all next to each other.

I quilted the top in the way I normally do, in a 45 degree angle. However this time I only did the corners and let the lines overlap. So there’s lines and squares. To stabilize the middle I also quilted around the middle circle and stitched in the ditch of the middle seams.

The back is Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Black and is quilted with quick wavy lines. I added a (mostly) invisible zipper as the closure. I’m still getting the hang of zippers.

I also stepped outside my comfort zone and bound the edges instead of having inside seams. I think this may be one of my new favorite ways to finish a pillow! Also, its great for gifts because the recipient can take out the pillow form and just be left with a mini quilt to hang on the wall or something.

Now here’s where I will sound like the biggest jerk. I was planning on giving it to my friend in person soon after her birthday, but then I got super sick (pneumonia) and have been playing catch up since. She should be receiving the pillow in the mail TOMORROW! (oooh, now my friends reading this have to figure out which of them is receiving this pillow!! hahaha. I have a few gifts that just got mailed out, so really it could be any one of you.) I really hope she likes it.

I seriously can not wait until after the holidays, when I have more free time to mess around with this die. There are so many possibilities for these little quarter circles, and I feel like I’m just getting started.