Oxford Comma Quilt finish

I'm so glad to have this one finished! Introducing the Oxford Comma Quilt! After I completed the Ohio Log Cabin Quilt a while back, Matt asked me if I'd make a wall hanging for his office. An excuse to sew something? Sure, no problem.

 

So we set about picking out the right fabric and pattern. He chose both with a little bit of guidance from me. The fabrics are all from the popular Comma collection (hence the playful name of the quilt; Matt's a professor) with a few Kona solids thrown in.

The pattern is a modified version of this Disappearing 9-Patch Baby Quilt from Janice Ryan on Craftsy. I made it smaller by leaving off one row and one column of blocks, and I used 4.5" blocks (instead of 5") for my starting blocks. The final quilt measures just shy of 30" square, a perfect size for a sizeable wall hanging.

For the back, I used up three leftover blocks from the front and combined them with strips of leftover fabric. I was originally planning on doing a scrappy binding to use up some more of my fabric (and to keep from buying more fabric because I didn't have enough of any one fabric left to do all of the binding), but Matt convinced me to use a solid(ish) color instead, and I'm so glad he did.

We didn't want to introduce yet another fabric since there were already so many in the quilt front, so we wound up back at my LQS and bought a little more of the gray and black comma fabric, which ended up being a perfect binding. I'm so glad Matt changed my mind. I also think the dark gray acts as a great border and really offsets all the busyness of the front. A scrappy binding would have just blended right in.

This was also the easiest binding job I've ever done, and I think I've finally got a good system worked out for machine binding. I used the method in Quilting Modern to create the binding and attach it to the front of the quilt using a scant 1/4" seam. Then, because I don't do hand stitching, I wrapped it around to the back and secured it with my fabulous new Wonder Clips (Why, oh why, did I wait so long to buy these?? They're amazing!), and then stitched in the ditch alongside the binding on the front of the quilt so the stitching caught the binding on the back. I've used a similar method before, but this time I definitely got the best results. Now that's a beautiful mitered corner!

 

I was really pleased with how the quilting turned out as well. I used green thread that matched the solid green in the quilt and then did a sort of wandering random maze pattern throughout. I used the lines in the blocks as my guide and spaced my lines about 1/4" inch out. I think the end result looks really interesting and compliments the craziness of the design, but it was also really easy to do (bonus!).

I need to hand stitch on some fabric in the back corners to create the pockets for the hanging dowel, and then I'll really be finished. The hubs is happy, so I am, too!

P.S. Have you guys heard about the Blogger's Quilt Festival over on Amy's Creative Side? It's a huge linky party for quilts in lots of different categories. I'm entering the Oxford Comma Quilt in the Wall Hanging Quilts category, so pop on over and check it out. The linky's open through Oct. 31, and voting runs Nov. 1-7. Good luck to anyone else who's entered a quilt!