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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Coins on the Sidewalk

Today was the last day of school for the kiddos, and y'all- I am exhausted!  Trying to keep some semblance of order during the last few days of school is like trying to herd cats.  You can run around in circles and never get anywhere (and I say that with all the love in my heart).  Of course, I have to work tomorrow to finish all of the odds and ends to close out the school year, but somehow, doing all of that without kids in the room doesn't seem nearly as taxing.  Hmmmm...wonder why?  ;)  I am so ready to have the summer to spend with my wild thing at the pool, and baseball field, and to be able to sew until all hours of the night without repercussions (not serious ones, anyway).

Speaking of repercussions, I stayed up waaaayyy too late finishing up the stippling on this quilt last night, which just might account for a smidge of my lack of energy today (but just a smidge- it's mostly because of the kids I tell ya!).  For once, I actually had a good reason for doing this, rather than just my obsession with all things quilty.  My Mom and Dad live six hours away, so they hardly ever get to see my quilts in person before they're sent to their new homes.  It so happens that we're heading to visit on Saturday morning, so I wanted to have it finished to make the trip with us.  That's a good enough reason in my book!




I just finished putting the binding on this quilt (Kona Clover), and I have to say without a doubt- I love the way this quilt turned out! The use of the Kona Iron as my sashing was a bold choice (for me).  Ordinarily, I would have picked the much more traditional white sashing, but I think that the gray gives it a little bit of the unexpected, and makes the colors really stand out.  I think it also makes it look a little more grown up.


For the back, I chose Kona Ice Frappe- what a dreamy color.  It's so easy on the eyes, I could just stare at it!  With the darker sashing, and colorful coin explosion on the front, a softer color was in order for the backing.  But I did include a row of coins to give it a little pizzazz.  Something about this gray, aqua, and green color combo feels very fresh, and just makes me happy!




I quilted with gray thread to blend with the sashing on the front, and the contrast of the gray on aqua backing looks pretty cool.  I was pretty worried while quilting, because there's no way to hide little crossovers or thread nests, or any other mistakes that can happen when doing FMQ.  It all turned out okay though- actually better than I expected.




I've named this one "Coins on the Sidewalk", because the Kona Iron sashing reminds me of concrete- and I think it sounds catchy, ha!

I'm also entering this in Stitched in Color's String Fever Festival of Strings

58 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I love that iron colour and agree it looks more grown up, the clover was a great choice for the binding too!

    p.s. do you know you have the dreaded word verification turned on?

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    1. ack!! I didn't know that. I think I figured out how to turn it off. Perhaps one of my later commenters would be so kind as to let me know if that fix worked? :)

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  2. This is so pretty, I love all the colors, and you are right about the Kona Ice Frappe. Just so easy on the eyes!

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  3. Great job with the colours, Kelly! A beautiful fresh quilt! Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

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  4. Another fabulous quilt! Love your work Kelly:)

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  5. Great quilt, the Kona Iron was the perfect choice and I love your name for the quilt too!

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  6. Your quilt is so fun. Great job. A+++++

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  7. Love it! The back is adorable, too.

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  8. Love your quilt. The colors are beautiful.

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  9. I love this layout for the stacked coins, very clever!! And I really like the sashing and binding choices too.
    I'm just making another stacked coin quilt but I may just do a bit of seam ripping and copy you :D
    My 'coins' are 2.5 x 5 inches. Would that work with your pattern?

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    1. I don't know if you realize that you're a no-reply blogger, so I'm answering here and hope you get it!

      Thank you so much!! I'm so glad you like it. My coins are 2 x 4 finished, which makes a 16 inch row of 8 coins. With the two inch sashing between the coins, that makes a 16 inch block.

      So, with 2 1/2 inch x 5 inch coins, a row of 8 would be 20 inches long. three of the coin rows would be 15 inches across, and you could do 2 1/2 inch sashing to make it 20 inches the other way as well. So, yes! it would definitely work, it would just make a bigger block. I think it would look great!

      by the way, i consider a block to be------ coin row, sashing, coin row, sashing, coin row

      there is sashing between the blocks as well, but I'm not including that in the 20 inch measurement. I feel like I'm rambling a little bit. Does that make sense? :)

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    2. Thank-you, yes it makes sense to me!!!
      And thank-you for doing some math for me, that's not my favorite part, lol!
      I did not know I was a no-reply, I will fix that :)

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  10. Beautiful quilt with great texture from all that FMQ. I love the colors and the name. Thanks for linking up with TGIFF!

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  11. Oh and the word verification is gone btw :)

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  12. Love the grey, it makes those coins pop. What a fabulous quilt.

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  13. Such a fun combination. I love that green binding.

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  14. Beautiful quilt. Love the color of the fabric you chose for the back.

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  15. That is a yummy quilt. So bright and cheerful! Congrats on your last day of school! I'm a teacher with 8 days left. Throughout the year I keep repeating to myself, "Summer always comes, summer always comes." I get most of my quilting done then too.

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  16. So vibrant and cheery! Love it:) And i love the pairing of the Kona Ice Frappe with the Clover binding!

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  17. Love the finished quilt. The colors are so much fun.

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  18. Great quilt! Love the grey in it too!

    Esther
    ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com
    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com

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  19. Beautiful quilt! And I love the Kona Iron - I'm a big fan of Kona Coal and Kona Ash, my go-to colors for sashing! I'll have to give Iron a try. I think gray is the new white, don't you?

    Whoop whoop!!

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  20. Wonderful finish! Love the scrappy feel all those great fabrics give the quilt.

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  21. The kona iron and Kona ice frappe were brilliant choices.

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  22. I love the colour combinations! The quilt is brilliant!

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  23. Dropping by from 'Anything Goes', fab quilt, colours and design and I know exactly what you mean about wanting your parents to see one of your quilts, go you for getting it finished in time :)

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  24. This is stunning! Where is the pattern from?

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  25. This quilt is soooo pretty with the gray background. Nice choice!

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  26. It is beautiful! Good job getting it done so you can show it to your parents! Enjoy your visit. Cheers! Evelyn

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  27. I, too, like that gray color. I think it makes the quilt more usable because it won't show the dirt so much. This looks like a great picnic or lawn quilt that allows the owner to play on it rather than "keep it for good." Great choice.

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  28. What a beautiful and happy quilt! I just love all the different Kona you used! Perfect! Enjoy your summer!

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  29. Your quilt is gorgeous! I have grown to love grey as background too. My DH has his last day of kids today... summertime!

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  30. Great pattern, love the gray for sashing and green for binding and yes, that backing fabric color is fabulous!
    thanks for your generous replies to the questions of previous posters too!

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  31. Very nice! I like the gray sashing!

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  32. Love, love, love your quilt! Colors, backing, everything.

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  33. I like how the strings are arranged in blocks.

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  34. visiting from we did it wednesday. I love this. I love string piecing and the layout looks fantastic.

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  35. I always loved aqua with green. Love your binding choice :)

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  36. I've never used Iron, but I think I'm going to have to, because it really does frame your coins so well. So pretty!!

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  37. What a fun quilt. It is a nice take on the coin quilt.

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  38. I love the gray sashing, too! I need to make a coin quilt soon - yours is lovely!

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  39. Darling, quilt....definitely grown-up and oh, so pretty!

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  40. Such a creative stacked coin set up. Well done!

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  41. I love your quilt! I've made one quite similar but with cream sashing and it's a pain to keep clean with the kids about, what a brilliant idea to use grey, I'm always scared of using coloured sashing!

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  42. What a beautiful quilt and I love the binding you used! I just finished up one like this too! Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

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  43. It's a lovely quilt - I agree with you about the backing colour and the scrappy coins!

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  44. I love everything about this quilt, from the clever name, the bold, bright fabrics in your coins, the grey sashing and the beautiful aqua on the back. You did a great job! Congrats on such a fun finish and thanks for linking up!

    xo -E

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  45. Perfect job - love the colours and I agree Iron is a great solid! Well done - am sure your family will be impressed!

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  46. Do you have a pattern for this beautiful quilt? Barbara babscorbitt@gmail.com

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  47. Just like the rest of the quilters I too would like the dimensions of the quilt in a pdf pattern. It is such a charming quilt and I doubt I could duplicate it but I'd sure like to try. I'd love to try it in Christmas prints. I have tons of scraps that I could incorporate. Won't you please share your pattern?

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Thanks so much for your comment and for visiting! I read and appreciate every single comment, and I reply to each one as soon as I can. If you don't hear back from me, you might be a no-reply blogger. :)

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