Scrap Happy Arcs Quilt

Last month, I finished my first quilt after starting the Quilt the Book challenge. The Arcs Quilt is the first project in Savor Each Stitch and I really enjoyed making it. I love how Carolyn provides three examples of the pattern, each with their own thoughtful write-up. I made mine out of some of my favorite Cotton + Steel scraps. Before having a daughter, I avoided pink like the plague. I am drawn to it more now because it is my daughter's favorite color and reminds me of her.

Some people consider needleturn appliqué to be time consuming and tedious, but I find it relaxing. It’s also very portable, which is a huge draw for me as I have long bus commute with unreliable wifi. Since I averaged four blocks a day, I was finished with all the blocks in a couple weeks. Because it’s such a small quilt, I was done with the machine piecing before I knew it and was on to the quilting.

 

For the hand stitching around the arcs, I used a dark pink perle thread that my daughter had picked out ages ago when I made her visit the fabric store with me. While working on this quilt, I learned to appreciate why stitching in the ditch is so common. Stitching outside of the ditch, as I did in a few places, proved awkward and not as neat. Still, I really enjoyed the handwork.

 

For the border, I chose to machine quilt a few simple lines to make the border recede and the handwork pop. The binding and backing were from my Cotton + Steel stash. It was super satisfying to make this mini quilt completely out of scraps and stash and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve made this year. I’m looking forward to sewing up more projects out of this book.