I Spelled it with Cotton & Steel.....or The Continuing Saga of the Quilting Rebel

First, I didn't Tone it Down, now I'm not spelling it with Moda. This quilting rebel thing is really sticking as of late.

The pattern is called Spell it with Moda - it is a pattern that was originally part of a blog hop leading up to Schoolhouse at Market a couple of years ago. You can find a free pattern of each letter on a variety of Moda designers blogs, but I just went ahead and bought the printed pattern from Fat Quarter Shop.

My 4-year-old daughter is learning the alphabet, so I figured now was as good as any time to make an ABC quilt. I busted out my bin of Cotton and Steel fabrics and went to town.

Above is a close-up of the quilting. This is a digital pattern called Retro Tile #2 from the talented Karlee Porter (check her out at www.karleeporter.com - she's amazing). This quilted out quickly and perfectly on my Handi Quilter Fusion Pro-Stitcher.

I know this isn't a big deal to most quilters, but this quilt is bound! I have a bit of binding backup going on - I have 17 quilts that have been quilted and are just awaiting binding sitting around my house. Even bigger confession - I just go ahead and use some of them without binding. I know, I know. Sad state of affairs. Luckily for me, my mom was in town and did the binding for me! Moms are the best. Of course, at the current rate, if left alone this might have been finished by the time my daughter hit college, let along Kindergarten.

I just love Cotton and Steel's selvages...don't you? I leave them in whenever I can - quilt tops and backings.

Here is the quilt in my daughter's room. I just finished painting her walls in the last couple of months - now on to decorating her walls.

My Not-So-Toned-Down Quilt

It seems I'm always at least a year late to every great party! This quilt pattern is called Tone It Down and is found in the February 2014 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting and was also featured as the 2014 APQalong. When the pattern/magazine came out, I was enamored with the Perfect Union quilt a few pages away (click here). The Tone It Down quilt seemed like a lot of work, so it just never hit my let's do it pile.

It wasn't until I got some bundles of Cotton and Steel's new lines and began contemplating what I would do with them when I decided to tackle this pattern. I just had to make this completely scrappy - which I absolutely love but boy was it a lot of work! I never wanted to strip more in my entire life.

Now contemplating quilting.