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The Flying Zebra Quilt is Finished!

I have had so much fun working on this quilt! And as my January project for A Year of Lovely Finishes, it is done well before the end of the month. It is also my second finish for my 2015 Finish Along Q1 Goals.

Back in 2011, I made two donation quilts from this line flying zebra fabric which I posted about here and here. This third one I had intended to save to have on hand for when we have young children visiting. But the more I worked on it, the more I fell in love with it and I just canā€™t see folding it up and putting in a closet.

It needs to be used. So thatā€™s what weā€™re going to do. It will stay in the living room to throw over our laps when one of us is curled up on the couch reading or watching a movie (we donā€™t have cable.)

I put my quilt holder through his paces yesterday while we had one of those rare winter sunny days so there are lots of pictures to share.

First the front:

Front of the Flying Zebra Quilt

I quilted very lightly in the flying zebra sections, stitching along either side of those rainbow lines that run across each panel.

The two blue sections between the flying zebra panels were quilted in a cross hatch which you can see in more detail by clicking through the link.

Flying Zebra Quilt Cross Hatching

It was the first time I’ve done cross-hatch quilting but it definitely won’t be the last.

The blue border is quilted in two wavy intersecting lines.

For the outside border in the rainbow fabric, I quilted intersecting circles. I splurged a bit and bought a spool of lovely variegated rainbow thread by SulkyĀ® 733 Color #4106. I may just have to splurge more often because the SulkyĀ® thread feels and sews so much nicer than the plain quilting thread I usually use.

Hereā€™s a closer view:

Flying Zebra Quilt Borders

I had quilted three sides of those intersecting circles and was so pleased with how it was turning out that I decided to try making a video to show you how I did it. Dave was recruited to run the video camera and to edit it into a short movie.

This is the first time weā€™ve tried to make a how-to video, so the finished product may seem a little rough. Iā€™m sure that both Dave and I will improve and learn as we go. (Weā€™ve already made a second one that Iā€™ll be sharing next week.)

The quilt back was made from the same line of fabric as the front panel but with flying zebras cavorting all over it.

Back of the Flying Zebra Quilt

The fabric had to be pieced to be big enough. I remember that it took me several hours of very carefully matching up the zebras to make the joining seam as invisible as possible.

While I was quilting, I kept mentally searching through the fabrics in my fabric dresser trying to figure out what to use for the binding. Then I remembered one of the fabrics that our oldest daughter had sent to me. The blue cloud fabric matched the colors of the clouds in the flying zebra panels perfectly.

Flying Zebra Quilt showing the back and binding

Quilt stats:

Finished size: 40ā€ X 59ā€

Flying Zebra Panels and the quilt back are from ā€œA Zebra of a Different Colorā€ by Winky Wheeler for MMFab Inc.

Blue fabric between the panels and the inside border is Kona Cotton Ocean.

I canā€™t remember what line the rainbow fabric in the outer border is from.

Binding is ā€œAtmosphereā€ designed by Maria KIalinowski in association with Benartex Pattern #Sky-C 5949.

 

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!

12 Comments

  • Leanne
    April 14, 2015 10:30 pm

    Your quilting on this one is really lovely!

  • Lynette
    January 26, 2015 11:35 am

    This is a very fun quilt. The video is terrific, and what I love most about it is that you’re showing how you work on a table-top machine to quilt, not with a fancy-schmancy longarm! And a glorious vintage machine, to boot! šŸ˜€

  • Gemini Jen NZ
    January 25, 2015 2:53 am

    Great work with the video and with the matching up of those zebras for the back panel!

  • Vickie Horsfall
    January 25, 2015 3:13 am

    What a fun quilt! I love the stitches you used on the edges and your video was helpful. Can’t wait to see what your next project will be!

  • Sandra
    January 24, 2015 11:57 am

    What a happy quilt! Good job on the video, too, and patience to mark all those circles. What pen were you using? I’m always on the lookout for good ones. I like the chalk pencils Angela Walters uses, the Bohin pens as well, and the blue felt(?) pen Leah Day uses (A Fine Line? can’t recall, too lazy to google it). So glad you are liking the Sulky threads! I LOVE them. Try the Blendables sometime too if you want the thread to both show yet blend with the quilt colours. šŸ™‚

    • Super Mom No Cape
      January 24, 2015 12:30 pm

      Thanks Sandra,

      To mark this quilt I used a Sewline Trio pencil. It has three tips, a black pencil, a white one and a tracer. This is the first time I’ve marked a quilt for quilting as I’m still very much a beginner when it comes to doing the actual quilting.

      The white that I used to draw the cross hatch lines and the intersecting waves on the blue fabric washed away no problem. I did have to run the quilt through the washer a second time to get all the pencil marks out but I think that’s because on some of them I had pressed too hard and so the pencil mark was darker because it was only on a few circles that the pencil didn’t come out completely on the first washing.

      I use the Sewline Trio black pencil tip to trace my embroideries and it always washes out.

      I’ll have to give the ones you mentioned a try. And I’ll have a look for the Blendables thread too.

  • Raelee
    January 24, 2015 3:43 am

    I can see it will be a popular quilt. Lovely quilting. Well done. Visiting from FIUF.

  • Susan
    January 23, 2015 11:00 pm

    I don’t even mind that word – I can actually READ it. LOL I came over from LAFF. Your quilt looks fabulous, and I loved the video. I didn’t think it was rough at all. Dave got right in there up close without a lot of jiggling of the camera and I could see so clearly what you were doing. Thank you! Is that on a FW or another old Singer? I love putting binding on with my FW – or at least more than on other machines – because it doesn’t slip. Looks like the quilting would be the same.

  • Shauna
    January 23, 2015 12:50 pm

    Ohhh this is just too cute, and I agree it needs to be out and seen. I know it would bring a smile to my face every time I saw it.

  • Stephanie
    January 23, 2015 9:38 am

    Well done Sue! I see that you are quilting w/ a regular foot while I use a walking foot..there’s the difference in our styles. Very nicely finished as usual. Stephanie

    • Super Mom No Cape
      January 23, 2015 12:59 pm

      Not so very different, Stephanie. I used a walking foot for doing all the other quilting. It was just when it came to quilting the intersecting circles on the rainbow border. As I mentioned in the video, I switched from using the walking foot to a regular presser foot because I couldn’t see the lines I’d drawn so that I could follow them.

  • Kate
    January 23, 2015 8:20 am

    It’s beautiful, Sue. I expect it will be well used for cuddling up whilst reading, etc.

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