Machine Quilting: Snickerdoodle

I just love that name. I find the hardest part of designing quilts usually for me is naming them. However, this quilt and it's name are just soooooo adorable!

 This is the Snickerdoodle pattern by Cotton Way (you can purchase the pattern here). Judy made this and brought it to me with the request to have fun. She wanted the quarter circles to stand out a bit but I couldn't quilt over the raw edges (you'll see them here in a bit).

With this task in mind I contemplated and searched ideas and contemplated some more... And even though this quilt is traditional in 1930's prints, it didn't feel traditional.

 Plus, Judy has this absolutely adorable grandson that I could see snuggling up with this quilt when he came to visit Grandma, so with that in mind I started quilting. I was able to combine the straight lines with the swirl to fill the circles while avoiding the raw edges. The quilting goes right up to it without touching it allowing the edges to fray and puff once washed. It gives it more of a modern flair, but it works. It doesn't look out of place.

 You can see the raw edges better here. Judy said it washed up beautifully and she just loves how it looks. To keep it simple and keep the interest on the quilt rather than the quilting, I repeated the same line design in the first border and then combined the last two borders with a swirly design to mimic the swirls in the circles. The more I quilt, the more I realize less truly is more sometimes.

 It always makes me happy too seeing the back of the quilt as I'm still working on it. It's the same design, but without the seams and fabrics, it has another variance of the character of the quilt. Here you can see I was still working on the inside border. (The sun was beginning to set, giving me great lighting to show the quilting, but it tends to disappear quickly this time of year so I took pictures early in case it had truly set by the time I was done)

You can see what I mean here, by the time I got to the other side of the quilt (minutes later) the shadows were much longer and the beautiful sun was almost gone :( But it makes the quilt look awesome!

Luckily I did finish with just enough sun left for a few good pictures. When I called Judy to tell her the quilt was done, I also yelled at her. Not harshly, but now thanks to her I NEED to make one of these quilts. Out of flannel. And like yesterday. Just so I can quilt it like this. And I can curl up because these frigid temperatures never seem to go away. So, thanks to her I have another project on the never-ending list of quilts to make. I may just have enough flannel in my stash to get started... But a trip to the quilt shop may be in order :)

By the way, don't forget you still have time to enter into a chance to win a copy of Kitchen Stitches! Click here to hop on over for your chance to win!