ladder leap in Konas

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Well, I did it! I finished a big quilt this week and man, it feels good. This twin size quilt is called Ladder Leap. A big thank you goes out to Cindy for giving it a great name!

I designed this quilt to be sewn up in my good neighbors fabric, but the fabric wasn't available when I was designing and testing it, so I used Kona cottons for the first go round. Once I sewed up the quilt and knew the measurements were accurate, I set the top aside and it hung out on the WIP pile for a good 5 months or so. Sometimes they need to marinate there, I guess!

I knew it would be impossible to pick a single thread color for this quilt, and an all over quilt pattern just wouldn't do, so I quilted the elements differently. I chose a free motion loop-de-loop for the background and straight line quilting-in 8 different thread colors-for the blocks. (I used this technique to bury my thread ends for all the starts and stops.) All of the quilting was done on my Juki. I enjoy being able to quilt my own quilts on my home machine, but let me tell you, I was a sore for a few days!

I am always looking for ways to use up scraps and adding some on the back never gets old. It was a bit of a risk to use all solids on the back, because there is no room to hide less than perfect quilting stitches...and I prefer to have a safety net at all times. :) But in the end, I think it worked well!

I really like the texture that the quilting adds, even to the back.

I auditioned a lot of different binding options-I even got the family involved in helping me choose. In the end, we picked the good neighbors gray stripe. It finishes off the quilt amazingly well! I like how it ties the different grays used on the front and back together.

I cut my binding at 2.25" for this quilt, so it's a little thinner than my normal 2.5" binding, but I love how it works on here! It was an absolute delight to hand stitch down.

The quilt measures 64" x 88". My middle son is trying his hardest to claim it for his very own, but that hasn't been decided yet. It's nice to know that this quilt will be well used and loved!

I slept under it last night and I give it my seal of approval, too. :)

Pattern: Ladder Leap (available in my Craftsy shop)
Finished Size: 64" x 88"
Fabrics: Solids are Kona Cottons in Steel (background), Snow (block borders), Kumquat, Capri, Ash, Limelight, Lime, Corn Yellow, Buttercup, Cyan (blocks) and medium gray (backing).
The binding is silver lining two toned stripe from Good Neighbors.

One BIG announcement that I am excited to share, Connecting Threads now ships to the UK and to Australia!!! So, if you live in either of those countries and you want to get your hands on a bundle of good neighbors fabric, you can, as of this week! They are offering free shipping on orders over $75, too.

If you'd like to win a chance at a free Ladder Leap PDF pattern, leave me a comment in this post. In your comment, I'd love to hear what you plan to do this weekend! I'll pick a few winners in a few days.

Ok, now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you for joining me for finish it up Friday! I hope you have a great weekend!