P is for Party on dudes, I've finished my quilt: ABC BOW week 18

You will recall last week that I was having a bit of a tantrum about quilting my ABC quilt.  I was using a "hand quilting" stitch on Bernie that was doing my head in.  Not to mention that I did a bit crooked and had to unpack it.  Urgh.  It uses invisible thread too, which I am pretty sure is the devil.

I understand from comments on a post by Nicole about invisible thread that other quilters use this stitch successfully.  Me - not so much.  I think I need to investigate invisible thread a bit more.  Tell me people that use it successfully - what brand do you use?  I was using Gutermann.  Breakage city.

Anyway, I pulled up my big girl undies, stopped whinging, and got the quilt finished.  It feels AWESOME, I tell you.  As my first ever embroidery project, it took far more time than it should have, but I have learned heaps about embroidery, and I really did enjoy the process.  So I guess Kristyne deserves a big shout out for her book and for being so inspiring.

Without further ado, here is the finished quilt.  It doesn't look like I imagined at the beginning, and thanks to the pulling power of invisible thread, isn't close to flat, but it is done.

One finished ABC quilt out in the sunshine

Those blocks are 8" each finished, so the quilt is 40" x 48".  That is a good size for a wall hanging.

One finished quilt, some sweet peas, decimated swan plants and dwarf cosmos

The wee man seems pretty enamoured with it, because given a chance he would pull it off the back of a chair and try to eat it.  I suspect he will not appreciate the sheer amount of work and effort that went in to it, but I guess that never stopped anyone sewing, right?! However for now it is hung on the wall in his room, by this method, which works really well.  It is a first birthday present (he turns one in February, but I thought it best to get finished over the Christmas break).

This is the backing, which I think is so cute.  Thanks to the 40% off fabric Boxing Day sale at Spotlight, I got it for a song.  You can see from the back that I quilted two squares around each block - 1/2" from the inner seam on the orange blocks using white thread, and 1/2" from the outer seam on the blue blocks in dark grey thread.

Wee pirate boys

And, because this is P week - here is the puppy.  What a cutie.  You can see the quilting more clearly here too.

P is for Puppy

How are you getting on?  Still soldiering on?  Link up and show us.  Despite my intentions to have a break, I may have purchased a bit of fabric to start the embroideries for the girl's quilt.  It seems I love handwork after all!

I will keep working through the rest of the letters each week, so don't you stop now ...

And even though it is only Sunday, I suspect I will be linking up to everyone this week - Show and Tell Thursday, Needle and Thread Thursday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom's, and TGIFF over at That's Sew Julie.  Did I forget anyone?  Go and check them out.
   

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