Blood, Sweat and Tears Bulls-Eye Quilt

Last month, I finished the Bulls-Eye Quilt in Carolyn Friedlander’s Savor Each Stitch book as part of the Quilt the Book challenge. While the previous project, the Arcs Quilt, used only convex curves in the needle turn appliqué, the Bulls-Eye Quilt features both convex and concave curves. I really liked how the Bulls-Eye Quilt built upon the technique of the Arcs Quilt, although in the end I prefer convex curves over concave ones. I was surprised to find that each quadrant had its own unique template to trace, but since I was only making one block the tracing and cutting was over quickly.

While the main goal of the Quilt the Book challenge is to sew all the items in one book, my own additional challenge is to use my stash for these quilts as much as possible. Due to my year-long participation in Pink Castle Fabrics’ Cotton + Steel club, I have more fat quarters than I know what to do with. For this quilt, I picked four low volume prints for the background and paired them with solids from my stash. While none of the prints is my favorite, I’m really pleased with how they all work together. I left off the borders because nothing in my stash felt right.

In two of the quadrants I machine quilted vertical lines, and in the other two I quilted horizontal lines. I really enjoyed the process and may use it on a bigger quilt some time. It definitely makes for a nice crinkly quilt after washing.

The back of the quilt is made entirely out of scraps from the front. I don’t usually like making pieced backings, but at this small scale it was a breeze. I couldn’t let the extra wedges go to waste, so I appliqued them on the back, after the quilting was finished but before the binding was attached. A couple of them are a little puffy, but it’s the back. The binding is another low volume Cotton + Steel fabric from my stash.

If I liked making this quilt so much, why did I include “Blood, Sweat and Tears” in the title? Well, when I was pin basting the top, I pricked my finger something fierce and bled on it in several spots. At the suggestion of a fellow quilter, I used hydrogen peroxide to remove the stains. Then I threw it in the washing machine for good measure, which had the added bonus of making it nice and crinkly. The sweat came from the unusually warm summer we had in Seattle this year. Turning on the iron without the benefit of AC was torture, so I was glad to have a needle turn appliqué project to work on during the hottest days. The tears were from the convergence of several icky things going on in my personal life last month, most of which are better now. After that, I needed a pick-me-up and finishing this quilt filled that need.

Quilting my way through Savor Each Stitch has been immensely satisfying so far and I am looking forward to the next project!