I’ve been wearing my quilt coat out and about (as much as I go out and about) and finally got some pictures of it, thanks to Doc.
I covered the piecing part in this post and the quilting part (that was all freehand, btw) in this post, so there’s not a lot of process to talk about here, except how proud I am of this one and how happy I am with it.
This was my first time really piecing a quilt and I learned a lot (mostly how much I respect the patience of quilters). I didn’t buy new fabric for the pieces, other than the black squares and the binding. The rest is all happy scraps: a tablecloth from my first apartment, a shower curtain I made right after I bought the house, fabric from a family vacation to Hawaii 15 years ago, fabric from our last trip to Moab before the pandemic. The backing fabric had been sitting in my stash for about 4 years and originally came from The Fabric Store in New Zealand.
For batting, I used pieces from my mom’s stash, which was a hard decision to make but felt right in the end–having something from her sewn up into this wearable hug makes it even more comforting.
For a pattern, I used Simplicity 8298, which I’d used about a year ago for another quilted jacket (before I really thought about whether I’m appreciating or appropriating Japanese fabrics; I kind of only wear that one in the house now). I left off the collar and straightened out the flare from the sides and sleeves by about 4 inches overall. I’m considering adding a collar now, though–I’m just happier with something up by my neck and I have lots of leftover blocks.
And since I will never, ever get rid of this, it makes sense to fine tune it so it’s even more perfect, right?