La Piñata - finito!

I finished La Piñata, my version of the scrappy trip along quilt that went crazy online in January, and managed to take some photos this weekend.

As I've said before, I used the technique described in this Scrappy Trips Around the World Tutorial from Quiltville.  However, because I used strips cut from yardage,  I made my blocks 8 by 8 squares, using 20" strips and ending up with 16" square blocks.  You can see my initial fabric selection and the mock-up of what I thought my quilt might look like here.

I honestly think I like the back of this quilt as much as the front.  The back is made up of two prints designed by Australian fabric designers Prints Charming for Spotlight (basically the Australian and New Zealand version of Joann's).  I found the large print on sale and bought all my local Spotlight had, which wasn't quite enough to back this quilt.  I used the blue print from the same collection to fill in the gap, and in the end I think it adds interest.  These fabrics are not quilting cotton (I think they were described as cotton poplin), but they are 100% cotton and seem to work happily enough with the quilting cottons I used to piece the front.

The binding, Alexander Henry's Heath in Black, was totally inspired by the areas of black cross hatching on the backing fabric.  It pops really nicely against the front too.

I quilted a simple cross-hatch grid on this quilt, similar to my A Brighter Shade of Pale (Lucky Square) Quilt.  This time, I marked every quilting line with my hera marker, and it really helped me keep the lines straight.  Also, I pin basted this quilt with a safety pin in every other square, checkerboard style.  When it came to quilting, I quilted the cross-hatch grid in all the unpinned squares, then stopped, took all the pins out, and quilted the rest of the squares.  It meant I was never having to stop for pins mid quilting, which really slows things down and makes it hard to keep lines straight.

So this quilt is now ready for someone to snuggle under.  I don't have a plan for it at the moment, but I'm sure the right recipient will come along.

What have you been up to this weekend?

Quilt Stats

Pattern:  scrappy trip around the world using a modified version of this Scrappy Trips Around the World Tutorial from Quiltville.

Finished Size:  Approximately 64 inches square.

Fabric: Assorted bright blenders, including several different colours of Mirror Ball Dots from Michael Miller and the egg prints from various of Thomas Knauer's collections for Andover Fabrics.

Backing: Prints Charming cotton poplin from Spotlight.

Binding: Alexander Henry Heath in Black.

Pieced and quilted by: me, on my domestic sewing machine.

This quilt is the third of my first quarter goals for the 2013 Finish-A-Long - three down, six to go!

Linking up with:

and, of course, Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

And, how could I forget, this was my February goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes: