Wild Cherry Quilt

Well, if any quilt can brighten up a cold, gray day, I guess this little one can. I love all the delicious shades of cherry, and the yellows and greens give it zing. You can read about how they all came together here.  Pardon the quality of the photos, hastily taken as I shivered in the wind and rain.

I like all its wonderful quilty texture.

 I was hoping to get this one finished sooner, but life happens--you know how it goes. And I always sew and hand quilt so much faster in my head. I'm sure you know how that goes, too. Truth is, I'm not good at sitting still for long. I can sit and hand quilt for an hour or so before I go stir-crazy. Some bloggers write how they hand-sewed the binding of their bed-sized quilt in one sitting while watching a season of 'Law and Order' or something...I wish I could do that, but I get way too squirrelly. So, I'm slow. But that's okay, it's not a race.

Speaking of binding, I take a shortcut: I trim the backing fabric so I can wrap it around to the front and use it as the binding. I've done this since my first quilt. I came up with it on my own, but a while ago I discovered this tutorial, which is very helpful for mitering the corners. I have bound two mini quilts the typical way (including hand-sewing the binding on the back), just to learn it and try it, but it made me so antsy to be done already...and antsy is not how I want to feel while making a quilt. I choose the backing fabric based on the binding I want, or I piece the back to give me the binding I want. I like my binding to be a little wider than standard, so I trim my backing fabric 1 1/2" wider than the quilt top (for this wall quilt, I trimmed to 1"), fold it over twice like in the tutorial, then machine-sew it from the front. I'm always pleased with how it turns out. Who says you have to make things the "right" way.

The backing, with all its colorful stitches.

It measures 34"x 37"

This is my first wall quilt; I've already started another one that I'll show you soon, and I keep thinking of ideas for more. I've long wanted to make one of Amanda Jean's ticker tape quilts (I've been saving my tiniest of scraps), and I really want to make one with Rossie's pebbles.  I like the thought of being able to change my wall art with the seasons or as the mood strikes me. So stay tuned ;)

Linked to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday