Hooray! My Halo Quilt is Finished!

 YOU GUYS!!!  Today is August 20th, and I finished my first quilt of the year yesterday.  I keep looking out my window for the parade but they must be stuck in traffic somewhere...  Surely there will be fireworks, or at least I'll get a mention on the news tonight???  😐. Seriously -- does anyone else feel a little anticlimactic about finally finishing a quilt, or is it just me?  So much work and effort, and then it's just OVER.  It feels so abrupt!

My 66 x 66 Halo Quilt Finish, Pattern by Jen Kingwell

I started this project in mid-March, so it took me five months from start to finish to cut, piece, quilt, label, and bind it.  The pattern for this quilt is available in Jen Kingwell's Jenny From One Block pattern booklet and there's a set of acrylic templates for the Halo quilt sold separately that are worth their weight in gold.  The curved patches for Halo can be cut with a 28 mm rotary cutter (a larger diameter blade is too big to follow the curves, but a smaller diameter blade is too shallow to glide along the edge of the acrylic templates -- the screw holding the blade in place would get in the way).  The other product I highly recommend for this project is Odif Grippy, a spray-on translucent nonslip coating for the acrylic templates that greatly reduces their tendency to slide on the fabric when you need them to stay put for accurate cuts (this post contains affiliate links).  

Halo is suitable for either hand or machine piecing; I hand pieced just one block just to see if I liked it better than machine piecing.  The verdict?  Hand piecing these blocks is easier but slower than doing it by machine, and I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible so I opted for machine piecing the rest of the blocks.  I used lots of Karen Kay Buckley's Shorter Perfect Pins to machine piece all of those curves.

Halo Pattern Booklet, Halo Templates and Tilda Pie In the Sky Fat Eighths

The Tilda Pie in the Sky fabrics pictured above were my starting point for this quilt, but I pulled lots and lots of fabrics from my stash, from my scrap bins (and from the treasure trove of scraps sent to me by Nann!).  What most intrigued me about Jen Kingwell's original version of this quilt was the way her quilt initially seems "random scrappy," but carefully planned elements reveal themselves on closer inspection (Most blocks are scrappy, but several blocks are planned.  Several blocks are planned to create an entire matching circle with a matching ring where the corners come together, and several other blocks are planned to create a scrappy circle with a solid matching ring).  She set general guidelines for value placement within her blocks (such as generally using darker/higher contrast fabrics for the rings and lighter value/lower contrast fabrics for background patches), but then only followed those "rules" about 60-70% of the time.  This resulted in a really interesting effect where some rings, circles and squares come forward visually in the composition and others appear to recede.  I attempted to recreate these "special effects" in my own version of the quilt and I'm pleased with how that turned out.

Originally I thought I'd have Halo done in time for a Mother's Day gift in May, and then when that didn't happen I tried to get it done for her birthday in July...  What can I say?  I guess it's a Labor Day gift now.

Susan E2E Quilting, King Tut 40 wt Variegated Cotton Thread in Cotton Candy

My husband helped me pick the quilting design for his mom's quilt.  It's an edge-to-edge design called Susan that combines daisies and swirls, playing up the girly floral fabric themes.  Since her favorite color is pink, I chose King Tut 40 wt variegated cotton thread in color Cotton Candy for the quilting.  I used my favorite Quilters Dream Cotton Deluxe loft batting, 50% thicker than the typical Select loft.  For a "napping quilt" like this one, I like the additional weight and warmth of the Deluxe loft batting, especially since it's a gift.  It makes the finished quilt just a little more substantial, with the softness and thickness of a high-end cotton blanket from a luxury bedding store.  And, because it's 100% cotton, it's a breathable warmth -- perfect for combatting the chill of the air conditioning for a cozy afternoon nap.

My Halo quilt is already boxed up, ready to drop off at UPS in the morning, so I had to get some detail pictures of some of my favorite blocks.  I won't be able to bring the finished quilt to Show & Tell at our September guild meeting.

One more:

Here's what my Halo quilt looked like right after I finished quilting it, but before it was labeled and bound:

66 x 66 Halo Quilt with Susan E2E

...And here's what it looked like when I'd just gotten it loaded but hadn't yet started the quilting.  My backing fabric is Kaffe Fassett Collective 108" Wide Back Brocade Peony sateen.  I briefly considered making a scrappy pieced backing for this quilt, but when I saw this bolt at the quilt shop it was just too perfect to pass up.  And the sateen weave of this backing will be so nice and soft against her skin.

Halo Loaded on my Bernina Q24 Long Arm, Ready for Quilting

Can you see how much thicker the Deluxe Loft is in that photo, compared to most cotton battings on the market today?  Thinner, lighter weight battings may be easier to needle for hand quilters, and thinner, lighter weight battings make it easier and less strenuous for domestic machine quilters to quilt large quilts in the small throat space of their machines, but the Deluxe loft cotton is just as easy on a frame long arm as any other batting would be.  Deluxe loft is more expensive than the Select loft, but it's worth it (to me) for a really special quilt.  However, I know that many quilters prefer the lighter weight batting for their quilts, so I stock the Select loft as well as the Deluxe.  There isn't one "best" batting that is right for every quilt!

Machine Embroidered Quilt Label

My machine embroidered quilt label looks crinkled because I used Terial Magic to stiffen the fabric for embroidery and it hasn't been washed out yet.  I love how this product washes out completely after stitching, without leaving annoying bits of stabilizer that shows through around the lettering.  

One last parting shot of this quilt, before I boxed it up for shipping.  My husband is holding it up for the photo and, if this was a video instead of a still shot, you'd hear him grumbling about "Hurry up my arms are killing me" and "are you DONE YET?!!!"

66 x 66 Halo Quilt, Pieced and Quilted by ME, March-August 2023

So, now that Halo is finished, what's next for Rebecca?  Well, I've resumed work on the Deco quilt I was in the middle of cutting out when I got sidetracked by the Halo project.  That will be my machine piecing project for the foreseeable future.  All straight seams are a welcome break after all of these fiddly curves!  I'll also be pulling out my FrankenWhiggish Rose hand appliqué project again soon.  I started that one ten years ago in 2014 so it's definitely my oldest work in-progress!

I'll be linking up today's post with my favorite linky parties, listed below.  Happy quilting, everyone!

FRIDAY

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation