Flowery Ballerina

The Ballerina quilt by Jaybirdquilts has been on my to do list since Neva and Kathy brought theirs at CJMQG  show and tell. 

While spring cleaning I noticed the dandelions growing in the mulch which inspired the fabric selection for this quilt. I wanted this quilt to look like flowers growing in mulch. Not very attractive but they were the first plants to stick their heads out, sturdy little things. I used just the flowery prints from a bundle of Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie & Camille and paired it with some Robert Kaufman Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in black to produce a similar look. 

The quilt pattern asks for much larger blocks but I preferred them a bit smaller and reduced the scale of the blocks. I also straightened the quilt edges by adding in filler fabric instead of the wavy edge as recommended in the pattern.

In the excitement of making this quilt, I forgot to pre-wash the linen and realized my folly only after I had cut up the fabric. I have not made a quilt without pre-washing linen before and was worried how it will hold up once washed. To give it a fighting chance I decided to quilt it densely and settled on Flower Power pattern by Angela Walters. I used silver colored thread which tied in the varied colors of the quilt quite well.

Gave it a little practice run and was ready to go. A big improvement from my early attempts at this pattern. The quilting took foreveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I had been posting pictures of my progress on Instagram. You can see more work in progress pics at liketosew. 1500 yards of thread later it was done. The dense quilting gave the quilt a great texture. I bound it with Comma fabric in green which matched perfectly with the green leaves in the flowers. Normally I pop all my quilts in the washing machine without much thought but this one I am still holding off. :)

For the back I used an Alexander Henry fabric that I had been hoarding for a while.

Finishing off with a few more pics.

Linking up to the Jaybird quilts sew along challenge hosted by Sarah Lawson of Sew Sweetness.