Quilt Finish: My Blue Hexies

  It's done! The English-paper-pieced (epp) quilt that I started April 28 is done! And in time for my local quilt show. 
For those non-quilters who are reading this post, "EPP" is a hand-piecing technique used to make a quilt top using paper templates. That means that I sewed this entire quilt top by hand.  For that, I'm giving myself a big old self-high-five.
I tried EPP for the  first time at the Sewtopia retreat in Salt Lake City last April. I turned the block from the class project in to the pillow shown here, and then immediately started this quilt.
About a month in to this project, I decided that this was the quilt that I wanted to submit to my local guild's quilt show in August, so I put the pedal to the metal, and honestly I feel like I didn't do anything but sit on the couch and hand-stitch during any free moments that I had in July.

Since I was trying a new-to-me technique for this quilt, I decided to continue that trend and used wool batting , and cotton lawn for the backing.  I wanted a light-weight, higher loft quilt that had silky soft backing.  Honestly, quilting this quilt was not pleasant. The quilt-top shifted something terrible, and I had to re-baste part way through.  That, my friends, is a soul-crushing thing to have to do. I love how the quilt turned out, and totally will send a quilt to a long-arm quilter to quilt with wool batting; but I myself hope to never quilt a quilt with wool batting again myself.

Having said that piece about the wool batting, I will say that I am very happy with my decision to quilt the quilt using wavy horizontal lines.  I think that the lines help camouflage some of the wrinkles and puckering that were caused by the quilt sandwich shifting during quilting.

 Quilt Stats
Finished Size: 65" x 73"
Method: English-paper-piecing using 2 1/2" hexagons. Papers were brought from Paper Pieces.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Wool, twin size. Purchased from the Fatquarter Shop.
Backing: Cotton + Steel Lawn solid in Magenta, also purchased from the Fatquarter Shop.
To see more pictures of this quilt in progress, check out #MyrthsBlueHexies, or see this blog post, or this one.
P.S. - We got a new (old) chair lift chair this week, and the kids and I had fun using it as a quilt photo-shoot prop today.    :)