One more quilt has made its way to the shop with the long arm quilting machine and come home to be finished. This is Jumping Jax Flash, a Judy Neidemeyer design that I pieced at least twenty years ago.
Here’s the pattern envelope at right – the pattern is discontinued. This link will take you to the Quiltworx page for this design. There are still some paper copies of the pattern around – I found one at Etsy and one in a US quilt store when I was looking for an image. If you want to make one, you can find the pattern!
Obviously, I made mine bigger, with 25 blocks instead of 12. I’m not sure whether I bought more paper piecing templates, or whether I traced them out myself. It’s been a loooooooong time since this one was pieced!
Here’s what it looked like when it went to the shop. Lots and lots of paper piecing for this one.
I’m so chuffed that this one is finally finished. Here it is now – yes, another kitchen shot because the snow just keeps on coming.
As you can see, I inverted the colours for five squares, giving them black stars instead of black backgrounds. Four have green backgrounds and the central one has a peach background. I wanted it to be a focal point, that looked illuminated compared to the others. I’m not sure that was successful, but it is what it is at this point. I am glad that I broke up the rhythm of the colours a bit.
I don’t have the highest level of restraint with colours and fabric selection, and this quilt proves it. There’s a lot of range in my definition of peach/orange and even more in my definition of turquoise. The blacks are pretty consistent (esp for me.) The smaller stars are all half-yellow, although the intensity of the yellow varies greatly, and the second colour in each one, which started out as a bright, ended up becoming just about anything not-solid-yellow.
The other day, I told you how I’d already sewn on the prairie points and wasn’t sure how the binding would work out. In the end, I sewed on the binding just the way I always would, but instead of enclosing the seam allowance, I pressed the binding flat on the back. It’s more of a facing than a binding, though it’s doing the same thing. That peach French shirting (that I used for the bias binding) has a woven windowpane design and I did use it on the top, so it brings it all together. I might even have enough of it left for a short-sleeved shirt.
The machine quilting is in a meander pattern. Though it looks like white thread here, it’s actually a peachy pink that coordinates quite well. I decided against adding more quilting, as the binding is sewn down almost halfway through that unquilted border.
I’m SO excited to have this one finally finished!
And now, of course, I’m thinking about what’s next. I have unfinished projects calling my name but am still tempted by this Judy Niemeyer pattern. It’s called Crimson Poppy and that link will take you to the pattern page at Quiltworx.
Hmm. Not just paper piecing but curvy bits. I may have to hunt down a workshop for this one, as I’m not sure how you (I) would even begin to choose fabrics for it.
Alive & Knitting 