I'm a Little Teapot...

I told myself no more sewing until after The Wedding.  Too much to do!  But I needed a sanity break.  So this morning, (and the past two evenings) I quilted up this little teapot wall hanging.

It was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" column in Quiltmaker Magazine.  She called the block Betty's Choice, but it is also called London Roads and gave me the perfect block to set with embroidered teapots from my embroidery CD from Dakota Collectibles (Redwork Sewin' Big #23.)

Originally there were four more London Roads blocks  in the four corners, joined by a triple border.  But they made the quilt too big!  The teapot theme seemed more suited for a wall hanging in the kitchen than for a lap quilt.  So out came the seam ripper and off came the borders.  They were re-cut and stitched together for the backing.  A perfect fit!

The quilting is Baptist Fans and done with the walking foot on my Elna.  It was the first time I've ever tried an all over pattern like this - and without marking anything!  The twisting and turning, starting and stopping was a little tough, but overall it turned out really well.   Just start in one corner and make a small quarter circle.  Stitch along the quilt edge about 7 stitches and then echo back around until you reach the edge, (or another line of stitching.)  Run the foot about 1/4 inch away from the last stitching line.  After 7 echoes I backtracked about 10 stitches, made a new small quarter circle and kept going.  Just work your way around and end up in the center.  Easy Peasy.  What a time saver by not having to mark the curves!

Time for a cup of tea!
It's my first finish in a long time, so I think I'll link up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict and see what some of the other quilters have been up to.