You are waiting for one bus...

.....and then three come all at once!

You know the phrase, and so it happens to be with #welshblanket quilts for me!

I saw the gorgeous quilt on IG that @maryemmens had made way back in November I think.  She was calling for pattern testers.

Now I happen to have 'a thing' about Welsh Blankets!  I have several and love them because you get one pattern on one side and then on the other side you get the same patttern but in reverse colours!   Plus they are great to use and wash well.

It had been a plan of mine to make a quilt inspired by one so when I saw Mary had done the maths you couldn't stop me volunteering to make it!

I started using what I had in my stash - it was coming up to Christmas so a red/white colour scheme seemed the obvious one!

This quilt is the result

And here is the back....

But then online I saw a colour scheme I loved of a real blanket !   I had to make another and decided to use my pal Karen Lewis' Allotment fabrics!

Having made the top I had the crazy idea of doing it proper #welshblanket style and putting the reverse colours on the back!  At the same time Karen asked if she could take it to the Stitches show in February!  

Happy Day!

Karen provided the 'backing fabrics' and I made my third #welshblanket top!  

And then came the tricky bit ....how to put them together back to back.

Now if I had started out with this plan I would have made each square Quilt-as-you-go and built it up that way but by now I had two completed tops!

Never one to let a tricky situation get the better of me I decided I'd machine stitch baste the white one onto the wadding - one layer less to worry about shifting around.

Next I pulled out the stitching in my dark top so that I had rows again.  I pin basted the middle row as well as I could onto the middle row of the white top, matching seams where I could.  I quilted it leaving a margin at either long edge.

Next I used that unquilted margin to join the next row - only the dark top rows were joined together at this stage.  It was a bit fiddly just catching the dark side but possible with that wide unquilted margin.

 I smoothed out the newly attached dark row, pin basted it matching seams with the white top - ok it wasn't perfect but a lot closer than it would have been if the tops were basted together whole.  I quilted this row.

I repeated the process for the other row!

I would be lying to say that they match perfectly but well enough that a bit of trimming and jiggling here and there meant I could bind and finish this quilt.

If the quilt police are out it would probably arouse a bit of criticism but I'm hoping they are overwhelmed by the fact that I even tried and did as well as I have!

Tempted to have another go?  I just might be!  But I'd definitely go straight for QAYG in blocks!

Now if you love this pattern as much as I do there is some rather good news because Mary has agreed to a pattern giveaway - just leave a comment below and say which colours you would choose for your welshblanket!  I will pick a winner randomly next Friday!  

Not only that but you can get a 20% discount from Mary's store on payhip using the code NICKY and the price on her Craftsy store will be reduced by 20% until the giveaway closes.  If the winner has bought the pattern then Mary will refund the cost so nothing to lose by buying it now! What are you waiting for? 

I am linking this quilt to Finish-A-Long 2016 

This quilt is on my FAL2016 list here