Besides January being filled with yearend bookkeeping and issuing W2s and 1099s, I could not decide how to quilt it. It sat on my design wall for a couple of weeks before I finally came up with a plan. The idea came directly from the Quilters Planner, week of January 19th.
After having a recent disaster with spay baste, I decided to secure the layers with safety pins. I first stitched in the ditch around all the blocks using the walking foot. You can see the block outlines here on the back a little better.
Then, I switched to free motion and quilted a grid of some straight-ish and wavy lines throwing in a loop every now and then. There are 4 lines in each direction per block so I basically quilted down the middle of each jellyroll strip. Since there are 30 blocks, that makes 20 vertical and 24 horizontal
free-motion quilting lines.
My quilt finishes at about 43" x 51" so that meant I had to piece the backing. I really liked the print, Water Color Dots in graphite and used it for the backing along with the the same print in Bubble Gum.
For the binding, I decided to sew it totally by machine. I sewed the binding to back of the quilt first, then brought it around to front and top-stitched in place using the walking foot for both applications.
I don't know if you can tell or not, but when I turn the corners, I always backstitch right before turning the corner and then afterwards as well. I feel better with a little extra security.
From the back, the stitching line is visible as it is about 1/8" away from the binding edge. But with this method of topstitching from the front, I'm not having to stitch in the ditch on the front while blindly stitching the binding in place on the back.
For the top thread, I use thread that matches the binding. But in the bobbin, I use thread that matches the backing fabric. In this case it's one of my favs, Aurifil 2600 Dove Grey.
I'll be gifting this quilt to the foster child of my endodontist who met me after hours on a Saturday night when I was having a bit of trouble with a retreatment of a root canal. It's all better now!
I completed this just in time to link up to the January One Monthly Goal Finish Link-Up at Elm Street Quilts.
And, linking this finish to:
Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts
Beauties Pageant 67 at From Bolt to Beauty
Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
