Zen Gardens Bento Box Quilt Finished

Hi, I am excited to share that I have my Zen Gardens Bento Box quilt completely quilted and bound. I really like how it turned out. I won the set of jelly roll strips back in December from the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day in a package of fabric with a solids charm pack and three mini charm packs. I loved the bold graphics of the black and white prints and the red certainly adds lots of interest to the mix, but I was just not sure to do with them and they sat for months in my stash.

Zen Gardens Bento Box Quilt Completed, Quilted and Bound

I really love the red binding as it pulls it all together. I would like to thank my friend Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs for suggesting adding the gray solid. Gray has become one of my favorite go to colors and I need to restock as I am down to less than a yard.

Plus and Dash pieced back to Zen Gardens Bento Box

As much as I love the actual front to the Bento Box quilt, I almost love the back more. I love all plus and cross quilt block designs. This particular plus block is one of my favorites and I have numerous pins on my Pinterest boards of quilts made with this block. It started as fly by the seat of your pants kind of idea to possibly use miscut fabric from my mystery quiltalong project. I actually used the leftover fabric and cut the plus and dash blocks and the binding from that instead. I will be using my miscut squares in a new plus quilt project since they were the perfect size.  I would like to thank my quilting friend Sandra @ Musings of a Menopausal Melon for helping me to decide on whether to add the dash to my plus blocks I had made up.

Front and Back together

I think the two sides would make a cool quilt together??

Zen Gardens Bento Box back on the bed after quilting

I quilted in a mock plaid or argyle pattern with double rows in the center of each block and where each block joined the next. I almost did not follow through with adding the diagonal center quilting as it looked good with out it. I am glad I did finish it as I planned as it makes a really cool design. I had to fill 21 bobbins to get all the stitching completed.

Full back of Zen Gardens Bento Box

I love the red, white and black paisley print I found at Walmart. I have a small portion left that will be cut into 3.5 inch squares to go into my black and white prints with red solid plus quilt project. I saved the extra black solid from cutting down the quilt backing after quilting and it will yield a few squares for the plus project as well.

Closeup of mock plaid quilting

Smokey, my cat helped hold down this quilt top this week every chance he could get. It did not mattern how many safety pins he was laying on.

Smokey does not mind the safety pins

Ugh, looks like a new project…need to reupholster my Mom’s sewing chair. I do have vinyl upholstery and foam cushions in my stash of supplies. I need to decide on whether to make my own vinyl piping to add back to the chair.

No Pins is more comfortable

I always try to wash my finished quilts before they are presented. This way I can determine how well they are going to hold up. There usually is alot of praying involved, especially when combining white and red together or other dark colors. I have had trouble with bright blue doing more bleeding of color than red like in my Dr. Seuss quilt. I live with two cats and two dogs so there can be lots of shedding of hair, and not everyone loves them as much as we do. Smokey did shed on to the black backing and I somehow picked up some dirt from my outdoor bench onto one of my white blocks. So into the wash it went.

A Quilter’s Life saving Trick

I decided to throw 3 color catchers in to the wash with the quilt. This is the end result. No red transfer to any of the white fabrics that I could see. I actually think this is color bleed from the black fabric. I got this result when I washed other very black based quilts.

Washed and Ready to Go.

Here is my quilt all washed and ready to go.  It ended up finishing up at 82 inches square. It started out at 86 inches square. I really like how it turned out using a cotton bedsheet as the batting. I am now looking for a California King white sheet so maybe I can use that in my Charming quilt that is 105 inches square. After making the plus and dash block design for this quilt backing, I am thinking it would be awesome to use it over in the back for Charming. I have a lovely black and white French text print and turquoise solid that could have black pluses added to it fairly easy.

One Last Peek

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my quilts. I have heard that some of you have had trouble leaving comments. I am not sure why or what is happened to the comments. If you click on the blog post title and open it up, that is where the comments show. You did not have to use to do it that way. Comments are open. I do appreciate all comments and do my best to get personal responses back to all.

I will be linking up this quilt finish with the various mid week linky parties that you can find the live links to in my Linky Party tab at top of the blog.

I hope everyone is having a great week.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley