Loulouthi Tiles

I finally managed my second finish of 2012.  I can't believe it is already May and I am this far behind on my goal of making 12 quilts in 2012 but maybe the summer will be productive.  After all summer is typically when blogland comes alive with numerous quilt alongs.  I started this quilt after my parents were nice enough to purchase a kit for my birthday last October.

Loulouthi Tiles

I first mentioned this quilt in "The List" and it made it's first appearance in WIP Wednesday all the way back in January.  I have to admit that there were several times throughout making this quilt that I really just wanted to pack it away and save it for later.  My dad is the one who convinced me that we really could work out the math and make this one happen.  I followed Rachel's original concept but changed the quilt a little.  I added both of my rows to the quilt into the length and didn't widen it.  My finished quilt measures about 97 inches long by 87 inches wide.  I do wish I had added a little more width since I fully intend to use this quilt on my bed.  But I think overall it will be fine.

Front of Loulouthi Tiles Quilt

This is the first quilt I have made so large and I opted not to hand quilt around the large tiles as I knew I would never get around to it.  Instead, I sent this one to the long arm that my mom and I both use.  She does a great job with all of our quilts and I love working with her.  After having some less than stellar experiences with different long arms in the local area it is well worth the hour drive to have Ellen quilt these up for me.  And lets face it, usually I just drop my quilts off with my mom and make her do the hard work of picking out a quilt pattern.  This quilt is the first one I sent to Ellen where I actually spent a lot of time looking through her books and picking a design.  I narrowed it down to this pattern and another called Orange Peel.  I was kind of set against a flower since I want to use this one on my bed and didn't want it to be overly girly (yes, you can feel free to laugh at me because I realize now that the butterflies and huge flowers amp up the girly factor A LOT).  In the end Ellen suggested this one as it matched a bit of the pattern in the fabric I chose for the backing.  Of course once she pointed that out to me I couldn't go with anything else.

Close up of the quilting

It's quilted in two different shades of gray.  With the thread on the top being a shade or two lighter than that on the back.  I really wanted the quilting on the back to sort of fade into the quilt rather than stand out.  I used didn't have enough fabric left to make binding and I really didn't know what I wanted that would look as great on the front as it would on the back.  In the end I used a solid PB Gray that I think frames out the front nicely and blends into the fabric on the back.  The back is mostly this gray and orange print with one little strip down the middle of miniature tiles which replicate the feeling of the front.
 

Back of Loulouthi Tiles Quilt

Overall, I think it looks great and I am pretty happy to have a new quilt to snuggle under when I go to bed tonight.  It's in the wash now getting it crinkle on.