Winner's Bouquet, Finished At Last

I managed to squeeze one last finish into 2010.  This is the quilt I'm calling Cider Mill, made using the pattern Winner's Bouquet by Terry Atkinson.  I finished the binding while relaxing before dinner on Christmas day.

I started this quilt in 2009, got it to the finished-flimsy stage, then put it away.  I sent it off to be quilted at the end of August and, oh, what a difference the quilting made!  In fact, the quilting makes this quilt.  Kari Ruedisale quilted this for me, along with my quilt Christmas Day, and she did a fabulous job.

The pieces in the pattern are quite large, but the quilting in those spaces gives it more dimension.  I just love the way it looks now. 

Don't be dismayed by the curved pieces in Winner's Bouquet; it is much easier than it looks.  First, the pattern includes plexiglass templates that make it a cinch to cut out with your rotary cutter.  I found that the pieces fit together very easily and were not at all difficult to sew.  (It would be more difficult if they were smaller.)

The pattern is written for fatquarters and yardage for the background and borders, but I used a layer cake (Patisserie by Fig Tree for Moda) with a couple of additional FQs.  While this worked fine, it was not very efficient use of the fabric and I have a lot of scraps left over.  But they fit well with my other scraps from various Fig Tree fabric collections.  I'm sure I'll manage to use them for something-or-other in the future.