Hippy Chick Wonky Wallhanging

My super secret project is my quilt challenge entry for the Pantone Color of the Year of Greenery, the Hippy Chick Wonky Wallhanging measuring 24" x 19-1/2".  Machine pieced and machine bound, a skosh of applique, otherwise hand quilted.


Mini quilt scrappy pieced backing

Update to post: Cast your votes for the Pantone Quilt Challenge on the entries page here or over at Bryan House Quilts.  Voting will stay open until 10pm PST on Friday, June 2nd.  You get to vote for your favorite in each category.  To vote, simply click on the heart in the corner of the thumbnail photo.  

The reason why I call it Hippy Chick is because I was a child of the 1960s. Some of the fabric seemed kind of hippy dippy psychedelic. My fashion look during that time period was wire-framed granny glasses, a mid-drift tied shirt, hot pants (otherwise known as short shorts) and white Nancy Sinatra boots.
But I digress, fashion-related items do that to me. I arrived late to the party at nohatsinthehouse.com who announced the challenge in the middle of March. Better late than never!

At bit about my process (or lack thereof), I wanted to make wonky blocks but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. After the fact, I viewed a couple of online tutorials but didn't learn anything. They also used foundations for blocks (which I didn't). I haven't quite entered the world of curves and circles in patchwork piecing so I just sewed together fabric and cut at odd angles and cut some more and sewed some more. Eventually, you have to square the thing up, there is just no getting around that.

While machine quilting would have been faster, this mini cried out for hand quilting, one reason being the thickness of the fabric in the wonky block. The thread, a polyester coated in cotton, was labeled "extra strong - hand quilting." My first hand quilted project AND I discovered how to hide those loose thread ends. While I didn't use a cheater needle, I will for my next machine quilted project.

Admittedly, I machine bound the binding to the quilt but hand stitched the French fold binding. As you can tell, I am a big fan of scrappy bindings. I think it provides added interest to the piece. 

Update to an earlier post - I sent out sons-quilt to be finished by a longarmer (definition for the non-quilting crowd, a quilter who owns an uber fast long arm quilting machine). His birthday is in July and it is fast approaching - not to mention the "quilting" part is least enjoyable for me. Sending out son's quilt has freed me up to finish not one but two WIPs, the vintage four patch that is basted and a 4th of July quilt that is near sandwiching.

Also linking up with Amanda Jean at crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Have you ever hand quilted a project? Sent out a quilt to a longarmer? Are you a hippy chick?

And, drum roll puhleeze, I have been nominated as Best Local Blogger for the Sacramento area. Please vote for me!

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