Honeymoon Quilt

The first time I saw Sarah Watts' Honeymoon collection, I thought I recognized a Costa Rican influence.  Then when I learned it was called "Honeymoon," and was indeed inspired by a trip to Costa Rica, I knew I needed to make a quilt from it, since my wife and I honeymooned in Costa Rica twenty-one years ago.

I used Amy Smart's Modern Buzz Saw pattern (from Fabulously Fast Quilts), and used most of the prints from the Honeymoon collection, with a few additional Cotton+Steel prints.  One of these additional fabrics is Melody Miller's Ant March -- chosen specifically since we saw plenty of leafcutter ants on our trip to Costa Rica.

For the background fabrics I used Dottie's Cousin in natural from Cotton+Steel, and Robert Kaufman's Quilters Linen in ecru.  The contrast between these two is subtle, but it shows up more in person than in these photos.

I chose a simple, quick pattern for a fast finish as a break from a larger project.  But I couldn't resist devoting some time to the quilting.  I quilted a feather wreath in each block:

In the background, at the block intersections, I used a curved ruler to define a small area then filled inside with back-and-forth lines.  The rest of the background I filled with swirls.

For the outer border, I added sawtooth triangles and continued the swirls in the background.  In the inner border, I started by quilting a wishbone design, but ripped it out after stitching a couple of feet.  The design was fine by itself, but it did not seem to complement the rest of the quilting well.  I decided to try a straight-line design, and I am pleased with how this turned out.

I changed my mind on the binding too.  I had prepared a binding from one of the darker prints in the collection, but when I laid it out around the quilt, it seemed too distracting.  I went with a neutral solid instead (Free Spirit Designer Solid in dogwood).

The back uses some yardage, plus scraps from the front. 

 I even incorporated a bit of selvage on the back:

I did not do any fussy cutting, but let the cuts fall where they might.  This worked fine for the most part, with just one or two casualties:

This is my first time to try wool batting (Quilter's Dream).  I like the puffy look, and it is not as difficult to work with as I feared.  Basting spray doesn't seem to hold as well with it, and not being able to use an iron on it meant I had to modify my approach in attaching the binding by machine.  I'm anxious to see how it washes, too.

I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.