Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Saturday, April 1, 2023

A slowly stitched finish...

Dancing Pluses is a finish!  

43 x 55

A little over a year in the making, this quilt began with six red hand-pieced plus blocks in January of 2022.

Each block measured 6.5 x 8.5 inches.

After stitching six blocks in every color of the rainbow (and seven blue ones to make the layout work), I finished the quilt flimsy in November of 2022, and earlier this year got everything layered, spray basted, and ready for hand quilting.

Looking back at my posts, it looks like I spent about three months on the quilting and binding, with a little time off when I was going through cataract surgery at the end of January, beginning of February.

Backing is a piece of "Sprinkles," a wide backing from Connecting Threads that I ordered back in December of 2022, and have been using for all of my 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge finishes.


Dancing Pluses hasn't gone through the washer and dryer yet, but the hand-piecing and quilting, plus a wool batting, have made it soft and drape-y.  I can already tell this quilt is going to be my favorite cuddle-up-with-a-book-and-hibernate quilt!  It may be April, but we still got snow just a few days ago.


Needing some new slow stitching for today, I prepped some pieces to hand-piece a few more bowtie blocks, in purple for the April RSC color of the month.  I'm making eight in each color, but have already made two purple blocks earlier this year.


Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching and at
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts.





 











27 comments:

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

A delightful quilt Diann. Love all your hand quilting. And such a great pattern for all those RSColours.

Preeti said...

A bright and happy finish. Your handwork is so neat. I see you are off to a great start for April's RSC with purple bow tie blocks. Have a sew joyful Sunday.

Michele McLaughlin said...

Wow! Dancing Pluses is a wonderful quilt! I love the background fabric and the cheerful plus signs is such a nice mood raiser when you are getting snow again. I love the backing from Connecting Threads, that company's backing is always so soft! What a great piece! Congratulations!

Susie H said...

Good-looking quilt! I think you've made a good start on your next hand-pieced one as well. Let's hear it for purple!

Anonymous said...

So fun to see those scrappy plus signs dancing all over your quilt. Great finish! I will try to get to my purple blocks this week. Gail at the Cozy Quilter

Vicki in MN said...

Congrats on the finish! I can just tell it is soft and squishy and ready for cuddling:)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

the one time I spray basted I put too much spray in it and had to machine quilt. You must have sprayed the right amount!!

Kim said...

Such a beautiful finish Dancing Pluses is! Love, love, love the sketchy fabric/s the pluses are dancing on. So fun.

CathieJ said...

Congrats on the finish of Dancing Pluses. It is beautiful. Enjoy working on those bow ties. Have a great week. I hope the snow passes you by.

PaintedThread said...

Your hand quilting is lovely. I have not tried doing that yet.

Angela said...

Such a pretty quilt!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches said...

Bright and beautiful and made by hand! Congrats on a wonderful finish!

Marti said...

Congratulations on your finish! I love the print background blocks; they really give the quilt character.

TerryKnott.blogspot.com said...

What a happy and bright finish! I didn't realize that those blocks did dance until I see them in the finish. . .how did I miss that??? The layout is perfect and it will be a wonderful cuddle quilt when reading!

Linda said...

The fact you hand quilted this in 3 months with cataract surgery and everything else going on is pretty amazing. It's such a pretty finish!

chrisknits said...

Wonderful finish! It should be a favored snuggle piece, it's just too adorable by far.

grammajudyb said...

Dancing Pluses is a wonderful finish! You really have been diligent about getting this to the finish line. The bow ties will be fun too!

I really enjoyed making mine in 2019! Machine pieced of course, and 8.5” blocks! What size are your hand pieced ones!

Thinking about you and your mom today! Stay warm, winter is returning!

Anorina @SameliasMum said...

It's a wonderful quilt finish and looks very snuggly. An excellent rainbow challenge project.

MissPat said...

Another great finish. I'm so impressed with how much hand sewing you accomplish. I know you find it relaxing. I assume you've recovered from the cataract surgery and I hope your Mom is continuing to improve. Boo about the snow. We're getting rain all week.
Pat

Astrid said...

Congrats on the finish! It's beautiful and I love the fun background fabric.

Bonnie said...

I like your dancing 9 patch quilt. I like how you used a diagonal of the red blocks and then mixed the other colors up. Very clever. And, wow, you must be a fast hand quilter! Great finish.

Kate said...

Dancing Pluses turned out beautifully! Congrats on that finish. Hope you got in lots of slow stitching today.

piecefulwendy said...

A lovely finish, Diann, and it makes me happy to know my little plus quilt has a bit of a twinsie now :-) I'm sure you will enjoy snuggling under that quilt!

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

What a fantastic Rainbow quilt and finish!!

Jeanna said...

Dancing Pluses finished up so nice. Congratulations!! I love your purple bow ties,too :)

Allison said...

This is a lovely quilt. The colourful scraps and the offset layout work very well.

Bernie Kringel said...

Hand pieced and quilted. That really impresses me Diann. It looks so sweet and of course, very cozy. Hope your spring weather arrives soon. Colorado sure takes its own sweet time to warm up!