Argyle Medallion

I'm so excited to show you my finished Argyle Medallion quilt! This quilt is an accomplishment for me. First, it's my first scrap-only quilt. I did cheat just a little and pulled a few low volume cuts for the flying geese because I didn't have enough scraps that were big enough, and I bought the background fabric, but everything else was scraps. The backing is a cut of fabric I got from a friend when she moved, so I didn't even have to purchase that. I love seeing scraps from other projects all over this quilt. And second, I made this quilt entirely as a leaders and enders project, my first one. I've sewn with leaders and enders before, but I've never made an entire quilt as a leaders and enders project. The only times I didn't use it as a leaders and enders project is the topstitching on centers on the Dresdens, and assembling the quilt. What's funny is it didn't even take as long as I expected. It took months, for sure. But I finished it much more quickly than I expected since it was a "bonus" project, and a big project at that: it finished at 80 inches. (So big shout out to my awesome husband for holding up this HEAVY quilt for me to take pictures!)

When I finished it, I decided to get it custom quilted. This pattern is from the Scraps, Inc. Vol 2 book, and the quilting on the original was stunning. And I decided I wanted a similar style on mine. I emailed the original quilter, but her turnaround was 6 months or more and I would have had to mail it, which I don't like doing. So, I emailed a more local custom quilter and asked if she would be okay with using the pictures as inspiration (that it didn't have to be identical but I loved the feeling and style so similar). She agreed and I took it down. She had it for about 4 months, and I definitely got anxious to see it but it was worth the wait. She did an amazing job and I love it!

When it came to binding, I decided to try using my binding scraps. But, the tricky part was that they weren't all the same width. I used to use the standard 2-1/2" strips, but I switched a couple years ago to 2" because I get better results. So, I had to sort out which were the right widths before I sewed them together. Luckily, I had more than enough 2" strips that I didn't have to trim any of the other ones. But I'm happy with how the binding turned out, I think it's fun!

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about this quilt. It was a great experience! And since it was so great, I started another scrap quilt (from Volume 1, this time) as a leaders and enders project. So fun to use up these scraps!

Argyle Medallion
Pieced by me
Pattern by Erin Burke Harris from Scraps, Inc. Volume 2
Quilted by Marion McClellan
Completed April 2018