Tuesday, March 6, 2012

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 :wink:} 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.

Today's post brought to you by:


My 2012 Finishes


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

25 comments:

SewSara said...

I love it!!! Turned out sooooo great :)

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

What a beautiful quilt! Your Aunt will love it! Thanks for linking up!
Quilting by the River

Christine M said...

Your quilt looks fantastic Elizabeth. I've managed to sew four quarter circles of my one so far! Haven't had much time but the curves went so well, not as hard as I thought.

QuiltNut Creations said...

love it love it love it!! fabulous job.

Lisa Lisa said...

How fun! Love it!

Karens Quilts, Crows and Cardinals said...

Just Love it Elizabeth! The colors, layout and quilting are perfect ! And nice job on the photo shoot as well ; )

Karen

Angie said...

Looks great! I just love it when they finish. ;)

Paulette said...

Oh, Elizabeth, it is brilliant! From your conception of the idea all the way through to its finish, you did a brilliant job on this quilt. I love the dense spiral-loopy quilting in between the dots, but really, I love it all. Great binding choice too with the red.

Missy Shay said...

I love how the pattern and the fabric and the quilting are all dots! It looks great!

Carin@Ullhärvan said...

It really looks great!

Gina Loomis said...

I love it! It's beautiful!

robin said...

Awesome quilt!

Becky said...

It turned out really great and I soooo love polka-dots! The quilting is beautiful also!

~Laurie~ said...

What an incredible project! Beautiful - thank you for sharing it's story with us - enjoyed reading about this quilt. You are an inspiration, truly!

Shay said...

It really is brilliantly beautiful I agree that the red binding just makes everything else pop...

Im thinking about stealing this idea for a future quilt. I hope you dont mind!

Cherie said...

Such a gorgeous quilt!! Are circle blocks hard to do?

whimsyfox said...

Hold on, let me wipe the drool off my keyboard.....
Ok, I can comment now. How GORGEOUS! Love the whole color scheme, Love the floating circles on the back, Love the red binding, absolutely LOVE the quilting on it. It's so purty!

Joanie's Trendy Quilts said...

Your spot quilt sounds like a labor of love. Lots of planning and collecting the perfect fabrics. It is beautiful! Congrats on making such a lovely quilt!

Kat said...

This is really beautiful. The red binding was a great choice, too. Who knew there were so many polka dot fabrics out there?!?

p.s.phyllis sews said...

I really, really love those fabric circles!! I think I need to do one. I recognize some of those dotted fabrics because that's what I have been working on, too!

JanetK said...

What a great quilt! I need to work on curved piecing - I love circles and your use of dotty fabric is great!

Heather said...

That is one fabulous quilt! Great idea, using all dots. I love it! :o)

Bente-I like to QuiltBlog said...

congratulations Elizabeth,
so-o-o beautiful!!!
Liebe Grüße
Bente
wish you a nice weekend ☺

amylouwhosews said...

This is so great! I love circle quilts. And I especially love the different sizes of circles. Thanks for linking up!

Jennifer Lovell said...

The finished product is wonderful! Congrats on making something so beautiful!