Sweet, sweet, victory. That’s how I feel about this quilt.
This was the first time I’ve made quilt blocks with linen. I starched the crap out of it. Not sure if it was necessary, but I did anyway.
It’s also the first time I’ve done rows of straight line quilting. These are spaced at 1″ and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
Breepickles suggested quilting concentric circles, which would have been awesome, but I’m not comfortable doing that yet. Feel I should play with that style before attempting an entire quilt.
Quilting:
Aurifil’s Medium Turquoise (#5006) cotton in 50 wt matched the backing perfectly. Then I used my absolute favorite color, Platinum (#2912) for the front. The Platinum blends into the Kaufman yarn-dyed linen and doesn’t take away from the bright quilting cottons.
I figured as long as I used the same weight of thread for the top and bobbin, it was okay to use 2 different colors.
Crinkles make me happy.
It does annoy me when when the fabric in some straight line quilting twists and turns between the rows. Luckily I got away without that happening and I didn’t switch directions between rows. Nope! I’m a rebel.
My machine (Janome Memory Craft 6600p) has a really nice built in walking foot so all the layers stayed put. To be honest, I think not switching directions between rows helped prevent that twisty-turny that bothers me so.
Rows of straight line quilting doesn’t freak me out now that I’ve done it. Next time I’d like to try skinnier rows or random spacing.
I cut 6.5″ strips of fabric and used the 30 degree mark on my ruler to cut the triangles. Elizabeth has a template if you are not comfortable doing that. I also used my ruler for the corner triangles, but she provides a template for that too!
Layout:
Alternate blocks of 8 prints and blocks with 4 prints & 4 solids. All corners are solid.
If you make one, definitely play and look at pictures first. Some people make all their blocks using alternating solid/print with some of the corners a print. Then lay them out all the same, while others rotate every other block. There really are tons of options!
I used more of the Kaufman linen for the hand stitched binding. Linen has such a nice texture and it just makes me feel all fancy.
The backing is Free Spirit’s voile in Mist from
Cucire. I heart, heart, heart it. Soooo soft. After loving it on the back of a
baby quilt, I decided to spoil myself.
And, of course, I added a label. I used to embroider them, but this works well too.
You can order labels and save 5% using code 627handworks at Ikaprint! *wink wink*
It measures 72″ x 60″ which is great for the sofa and I’m keeping it for myself (shocker). Let’s see if any of my family members can pry it from my hands. Doubt it.
Oh… I spray basted it. I’ve never pinned. Is my quilty membership revoked now?
