Botanics quilt: A finish!

Today, I'm so excited to finally be posting about one of my favorite makes ever. Back in May, I finished up my Botanics quilt, one of my largest scale applique projects.

This quilt was destined for two dear friends who recently got married, and while I was so happy to be able to give it to them, I must admit it was really hard to let this one go.

As you may recall, this quilt started back in February with a lovely stack of soft blue and green prints, mostly from Carolyn Friedlander's various lines, with a little Cotton + Steel, Pond by Elizabeth Hartman, and Essex yarn-dyed linen throw in. I love these soft, soothing colors, just perfect for spring (and our friends' home decor).

I chose the fabrics for each section as I went, without a real plan. I just did a section and then auditioned from my stack until I found the right print for the next part. This was my first time appliquing with the Essex, and it turned out to be a real pleasure -- soft and pliable and oh so easy to work with.

I knew from the start that I wanted to do some hand quilting on this project (my first time!), so I took a tip from Carolyn and decided to try wool batting for the first time as well. She uses it in most of her quilts, and I just love the softness and loft it provides. Plus, it can be stitched more widely than cotton, which was the look I wanted to go for. For the back, I used one of the Friedlander lawn prints, which really sent the softness factor over the edge.

I ended up quilting in a randomly spaced grid pattern. I set the pattern first with a light blue 50 wt. thread on my machine, then filled in spaces with some big-stitch hand quilting using a teal no. 8 Perle cotton and a 12 wt. light blue Sulky thread. The hand quilting was such fun, and I can't wait to do it again. This quilt has me itching to finally finish up my Collection quilt!

I finished off the quilt with a mint green crosshatch that I love for the binding (the same one I used for the background in my Tall Tales quilt -- how different it looks here, paired with a different color scheme). Many nights went into this quilt, and I'm so very pleased with the results.

Botanics pattern by Carolyn Friedlander. The quilt measures approximately 55" x 65".