Liberated four patch - pinwheel FINISH

A bit about the "process" with this quilt:

1. I started with liberty scraps. I didn't have much, so I had to stretch them as far as I could. I decided to make four patches using the liberty scraps and some solid pink. I had been reading Gwen Marston's book "Liberated Quiltmaking" and so I decided to try out that method.

2. After I had made the four patches, I decided to give them some space by placing them around a liberated pinwheel (in grey). I was inspired to use the grey because there was a lot of it around in blogland at the time and I already liked pink and grey as a colour combination. I used Kona Cotton Ash.

3. Then I had to find a way to make even sized blocks, and because the pinwheel - four patch blocks were all such different sizes, (because the four patches were all such different sizes, because the liberty scraps had all been such different sizes), I decided to put a grey "L-shape" around one half of the pinwheel blocks. Then I squared each block up to be the same size, about 10" square.

4. Next: sashing. All I did here was trial various fabrics I had in my stash. I NEVER would have thought to pair pink and grey with lime green and light blue (Amy Butler), but once I saw it, I loved it. I carried the pink through into the sashing to almost create a chain effect. As you may or may not know, I am a huge fan of the Irish Chain pattern, and with hindsight, I can see that chain pattern coming through in this design.

 
5. Backing, batting and binding. Aaahhhh, the three Bs! Such joy! For the backing, I chose another Amy Butler fabric from the "Love" range, one of my all time favourite fabrics ever. I think it contrasts beautifully with the top of the quilt, and I love the way the quilting shows through, randomly meandering across the floral pattern. Batting is always 100% cotton. And for the binding, I chose the solid pink again. 

6.  Finally, the quilting.  I decided to try some outline quilting in the grey pinwheels and then a simple leaf pattern in the sashing.  No markings were used in the spirit of liberated quiltmaking.  I used the large "naive" style of quilting made famous by the girls at Material Obsession, and I think that style really suits the liberated quilts.  I still haven't quilted the four patches, and am yet to decide whether I will or not.  For now, they will remain unquilted.

A few thoughts about the finished product...

First off, I have to say I am pretty unhappy with the placement of the small four patch - pinwheel in the top right corner block. 

 It looks like the corner of the quilt has been cut off.  I should have been prepared to liberate a little more, in order to turn that block around so the colour was in the corner instead of the big grey "L".  I think that would have balanced the design.

The quilting is not good, but I am happy with it because since doing the quilting on this project, I have improved, and you have to be willing to do something badly to get good enough to do it well.  So, I'm ok with the dodgey quilting.

I wish I had had the courage to use a totally new fabric in the binding.  It looks too tidy with the solid pink.  Looking at the quilts in "The Quilts of Gees Bend" has really inspired me to get creative with binding.

Thanks for reading this far, dear reader!