This quilt has undergone two incarnations. First off it appeared as Swoop in the Bluebird Sew Off run by Rachel over at Stitched in  Color

I loved this fabric range so a competition using this fabric was just the excuse I needed. The downside was that to get the iconic bluebird fabric in the background below it had to be ordered from the US and so by the time the fabric arrived I only had four or five days to finish the quilt before the deadline.

So it had to be quick and easy.  So I went with this reverse appliqué, a bit of improv curves and very simple quilting. It was a whole cloth piece and therefore ended up on the small side. But it got finished and although it didn’t win (this beauty won) it struck me that it would make a great practice piece for the FMQ class I’m attending. So time for reincarnation two! Looking Through the Window…

I hugely enjoyed quilting it to death following the quilting lines.  Had great fun using a variety of fillers learnt in class and also from Pinterest.  Just a few shots of the back …

I  then decided to make it larger as it wasn’t a really useful size. It could have been a cot quilt but the heavy quilting had stiffened it up and so enter a new to me technique of Quilt As You Go.

Well never again! It meant adding sizeable border pieces and wrestling with thin sashing…..seriously not fun. I know loads of quilters swear by it as a manageable way of quilting a large quilt but I won’t be racing to do it again. It didn’t help using a particularly thick batting. And it just shows everyone has their different ways and preferences.

This is both another item off my Q2 FAL list and my OMG for Heidi at Redletter Quilts.

Linking up with FAL Q2 link up #2016FAL