Seeing Spots

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
–Calvin Coolidge

Today was beautifully overcast; lovely weather for photographing quilts outdoors. I'm so excited to have this polka-dot quilt finished! It is inspired by SewSara {Dots Crazy and Mini Dots}, Amber {Dot-to-Dot} and American Quilting {Connect the Dots, no longer available} and is called Seeing Spots.

I started thinking about ideas for a polka-dot quilt in November of 2010. I got the large Drunkard's Path die when I won my Go! Fabric Cutter. I used some Christmas money to get the small Drunkard's Path die so I could use them together to make a fun, spotty quilt. I pulled all the dotty fabrics from my stash. Then I borrowed, begged and swapped for dots {special thanks to: Annelise, Iris, Jerri Lynn, Michelle, P., Sara and Wanda for feeding my obsession}. By May of 2011, I had all my fabrics assembled and started cutting out dots. I've worked on it here and there since then. I'd planned to finish this in January, but sometimes things don't go as planned. There are 110 different dotted and spotted fabrics, with no repeats {editor's note: fabrics from the same line — like Moda Essential Dots — in different colors don't count as repeats} in this quilt. I love how the red binding frames the quilt.

I like to put a little something fun in the seams between the larger pieces of the quilt back. I put a line of four “floating dots” up the back, one of which is an embroidered label {which says I finished this in January, so it must be true} and one you can't see because it is folded over the back of the chair. I used water-soluble thread to baste the quilt. I like the stability that stitching in the ditch provides, but I didn't want my finished quilt to be broken up with lines that intersected each of the circles. The water-soluble thread takes quite a soaking to dissolve it, but it washed away cleanly and served its purpose. I did everything free-motion; swirls in the circles and then a connected, swirly sort of coil in the background.

As most of my projects do, this one took on a life of its own. I ended up with enough dotted fabric to make four quilts; I gave two kits away in January and am working on a quilt for myself. This one is a gift for a very special aunt {I may have mentioned this } who did me a solid and I'll be dropping it in the mail this week. I wanted to finish this quilt in January for several reasons. First it is a long over-due thank you. Second, I wanted to have a finished sample of what I was giving away. And finally, I wanted to link up to Vicki's awesome Focus On Free-Motion challenge for the month. She had some really great prizes. Sometimes, that's how life goes, though. And as they say, slow and steady wins the race. I'm off to work on some more dots.

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Read more about this quilt:
A bit about the background fabric
Sneak peek at the polka-dots
Kit giveaways and top in progress
Finished flimsy
Kit giveaway winners
Basted with water-soluble thread
Peek at the quilting in the circles
Peek at the quilting on the background