Hotspur Street Quilt

Ta da! 😃

This is the Hotspur Street Quilt Pattern by Eleri Taylor. Clicking the link will take you to her Etsy page where you can buy it - but I don't get a commission or anything. I just know how frustrated I get when I have to chase down a pattern that I like. It's a full size quilt, and so too big to fit on my washline - or anything else to display it full size. Even turning it sideways on the washline it was too big to fit without getting down to ground level.

Despite being the first quilt I started, it was the last to get finished. For some reason, I thought this was a quick and easy pattern. After sewing for what felt like forever, I stopped to count the pieces. Nearly two thousand of them, in total. All, except for the border, being 2.5" (5cm) square. Teeny pieces needing teeny seams. What was I thinking???

They all started coming together finally, and I was so excited to finish my first set that I made poor long-suffering Himself come out and take a photo of me with it. Especially as he wasn't that impressed. Looking back at the photos, I can see why. It definitely doesn't look as good as the finished product. 

As I don't have a design wall, my method is to lay the pieces out on my bed and match up patterns. This is definitely not a long-term solution. For a couple of reasons. Firstly, the Ninja has decided that anything laid on the bed instantly becomes her property and must be defended tooth and nail. Very sharp little teeth and nails, I might add! As I laid them out, she would jump onto that piece and when I tried to remove pieces to sew them together, she would lash out. I have no idea why this quilt has so little red in it!

The second reason has more to do with being able to see the pattern. Experienced quilters will know what I mean. On a design wall, you set out your blocks, step back and look at them, or possibly sleep on it and look at it again in the morning. Glaringly obvious pattern errors will often reveal themselves with a bit of distance. Or time. Neither of which is an option when you're using a bed. At least, not YOUR bed!

This quilt is scrappy and busy so that it is very forgiving, but I can see several areas where I should have mixed the patterns up better. The plethora of like alongside each other grinds my goat. 

It was finally all together and I put it on the spare bed to check out how it looks. It was supposed to be a full size quilt, and our bed is queen size, so I needed to check it correctly. The friends who were to receive it have a full size bed and I didn't want it to swallow their bed because it was sized wrong. In my humble opinion, it turned out just right. Although, it didn't feel finished. So I added a border from fabric in my stash, which, oddly enough, was the same designer as one of the jelly rolls I used, and finally bound it in a dark brown. 

You'll have noticed, by this point in the photos, that this quilt is being stalked. The Ninja was most offended that "her" quilt was on the washline! In fact, it was very difficult to find photographs that didn't have her in them! She adored this quilt and got on it at every possible opportunity. 

In fact, the way she was pacing around it, I'm sure she was trying to figure out if there was any way to get on it while it was hanging up! 

Photo on our bed so that the border can be seen better.

 It's backed with a blue fabric from my stash, and was quilted by my friend, Brenda Ackerman, on her longarm quilting machine. She did a great job and it looks fantastic!

I'm really proud of this one. I think it turned out terrific. Our friends love it, so it was worth all the hassle!

Now I just need to make a new quilt for these two!