BIG Finish of 2013: Marmalade "Summer in the Park"

Started with this lovely Marmalade jelly roll and some white yardage cut into 2.5" strips, followed Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorial for Summer in the Park, and ended up with one of my favorite quilts.

A few new things were tried with this quilt - tube piecing and board basting to name a couple. At first I was excited about basting this way (in brief the top and backing are each rolled onto their own board and then unrolled in sections as you baste with batting layered between). This definitely beats basting on the floor, but I have since tried another method that I think I prefer more; will post about that in the future.

Sorry, no pics of my tube sets. Tube piecing went well; I spent more time laying out my sets than I did sewing them.  (Most time-consuming parts of quilting for me - settling on a pattern and laying blocks out.) I do think I need to be more careful when cutting and take time to check blocks to make sure they don't need squaring up. During the basting process there was a lot of "poof" in the middle of the quilt. Problem was solved with a lot of ironing and steaming, but I definitely need to work on squarer piecing.

Another new attempt with this quilt was with the quilting.  I am so glad that I went with a gutsy decision (on my part) to try something different in the borders. The curves really soften up all the straight lines of this quilt.

At first I wasn't too happy with how inconsistent my walking-foot curves were turning out and how some spots aren't even really curves but more like little "angles," but when I look at it overall I'm thrilled with how the borders turned out. Inspiration for border quilting came from here. Am looking forward to trying a few other new things with the walking foot.

Overall I'm very pleased with how this quilt turned out. Love the colors. Love the borders. Glade I took all that time with color placement.

It's our summer quilt to be used (and it has been used : ) especially for "Book Club" out under the shade tree on warm summer days - our summer in the park : )

Quilt stats:

Started: July 2013

Finished: September 2013 (when I should have been paying more attention to packing for a move but was determined this quilt was not getting moved unfinished : )

Fabric:  Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

             Moda Bella solids: White and Aqua
Size:            (to be updated)