Sweet Sugar Swirls {Finished}

Gosh.  It's been a while, eh?  Sorry I've been a little M.I.A. lately.

It's Spring Breaks' fault.  We headed down south to sunny, St. George (Utah) for some wonderful R & R that our family definitely needed.

But, I learned something about myself while on that trip.  I learned that I actually don't do good with too much R & R.  So the minute we got back home I got right back into finishing two quilts and starting about 5 more!

Speaking of which, I've got one that I'd love to share with you today.  This project has been in the works for a few years so I am really happy to say she's finally finished!!!  Yay!!!  It was seriously touch and go there for a while :)

So this quilt has a story behind it.  

It all started with a contest.  Joanna (over at Fig Tree Quilts) was having a contest to see who could come up with the best name for one of her patterns.  I won (or at least was one of the winners).  I honestly can't remember which pattern it was that I helped to name though.  Like I said ~ it was years ago.  But as the prize, she sent me some patterns and a cute little Patisserie Honey Bun (remember those pre-cuts that Moda use to sell? Like a Jelly Roll - but smaller 1-1/2" strips).  I bought some additional fabric to make this Sweet Sugar Swirls pattern and then the kit sat.  And sat.  And sat.  I sold other kits that I had accumulated but I couldn't bear to see this one go.  I loved the fabric and the pattern so much that I hung onto it for years.  I worked on it once or twice but just couldn't seem to make any headway on it.  Until the quilt retreat I went on a couple of months ago.  I was able to get the top finished there and then quickly got it quilted.  I got the binding finished last weekend and did a little photo shoot yesterday.  Care to see some pics?   

You can see the back (mostly a solid cream fabric with a few leftover printed strips pieced in the middle) and some of the quilting here.  Can I just say that I LOVE the quilting on this?!?  Linda Childs at Just Sew quilted it for me and did a fantastic job!  Just perfect for my taste!

Oh.  I also HAVE to mention that while I was working on this at the quilting retreat, I called it my "Don't Look Close" quilt.  I was having a horrendous time getting my blocks to lay flat!  I tried so hard to make sure that all my points matched up nicely but the centers of most of the blocks kept poufing up!  I was stressing big-time but figured it had something to do with all those bias edged pieces.  I was really quite embarrassed that that was happening so I told everyone that it was my "Don't Look Close" quilt.  I asked around as to what I should do and a few people told me to just starch the heck out of my blocks.  So I did.  It seemed to work.  And then the quilting helped to fix the rest.  I honestly can't tell that there was any kind of poufing problem to begin with.

Isn't this a cute little gate?  It's in my neighbors yard.  

So welcoming, I think (especially with a quilt hanging over it!:)

Well, since it took me so long to finish this quilt, Patisserie fabric had come and gone.  I couldn't find any more of it for the binding.  But lucky for me, Avalon arrived in stores right before Spring Break so I picked up some of this cute little red polka dot print.  It wasn't a perfect match to Patisserie's red but I thought it was a close second choice.  As you might be able to tell from some of the pictures, there are a couple different reds in this quilt so I think it works.

I'm so glad Sweet Sugar Swirls is finally done.  It's actually one of my favorites, I think.  It's a beautiful design.  And really wasn't that hard once I got going on it (just wish I could have done something to avoid that poufing problem though).  But seriously, that Joanna ~ she sure is genius.

Happy quilting!

~ Amber