Another finish! (It’s about time I got some of those quilt tops sandwiched and quilted, right? I just wish I enjoyed that basting step more…)
Anyway, you might remember this quilt top from a week or two ago. As I mentioned at that time, these blocks were actually sitting around for a while. I unearthed them during a bit of cleaning, and was happy to have done so since it made for a fun little quilt. And since I had already done all the work of making the blocks a few months ago, it was a nice fast project! (love that!)
I hadn’t yet had a chance to make a quilt that mixed up all the colors of Laurie Wisbrun’s Tufted Tweets line. I just love the bold bright colors in this line and I think they look fabulous together. And I’m especially loving it paired with the Kona medium gray with a little touch of white.
The backing is pretty simple – just one large strip of one of my favorite prints, the Avian Therapy in orchid. I echoed the design from the front by bordering the printed fabric with a thin stripe of white and then bordered that in the gray.
It took me a while to decide on the quilting – I knew I wanted to go with straight lines, and I knew I wanted it to be something that would give a bit of interest to those larger open gray squares. In the end I went with concentric squares in the open gray sections and I used straight lines about a 1/2″ apart through the printed sections. I used a cream colored thread so the quilting would be noticeable through the gray sections, but not so much in the printed sections so as not to take away from the fun prints. I used a washable marker to draw on all the quilting lines ahead of time.
As Alissa just mentioned, this is the type of quilting that I wish I could do on larger quilts, but unfortunately, I agree with Alissa – I just don’t find it doable on my regular size sewing machine. So for now I take the opportunity to do more straight line quilting on baby-sized or smaller quilts.
This quilt measures about 40″ square and I think this would make a great playmat or a really fun wall hanging. It’s listed in the shop!
a flea market fancy quilt for some lucky baby
scenes from a weekend
Beautiful! I love the bright colours against the grey
Two of my favorite quilty things! Tufted tweets is one of my favorite recent fabric lines and I adore concentric squares
Gorgeous! I really love this bold yet simple design. I quilted concentric squares on my latest quilt (about 70″ x 80″) and I will NEVER attempt that again on something so large! It was a huge pain. I really must learn free motion quilting!
The quilting on this is really wonderful. So glad to see this finished. So pretty!!
The grey really makes the colors sing. Love it!
LOVE the quilting. You do such a great job making the quilting “Go” with the quilt.
If you told us you actually like basting I’d say there is something wrong with you! I hate it too, but it is satisfying once it’s done. I’m loving this design Ashley. And I read Alissa’s post too and agree. I’m getting bored of stippling too, and I have a few smaller quilts in the works so I can become more proficient at grid quilting too. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a long arm!?
I have to confess that I stole your design on this quilt to make a quick baby quilt for a friend of my daughter’s baby boy. I needed something that was boyish and very quick. Maverick is 5 weeks old and has cancer. I saw the design and used it. Please forgive me. It sewed up quickly and even though I did not quilt as strikingly as you, it also quilted quickly. I used a pale green and zoo prints. Your pattern is fantastic and looks so impressive for a very quick quilt.
I’m so glad that you did, and I’m happy to know that it’s going to a special little one!
That is so beautifully simple! I love the gray!! Beautiful.
Beautiful quilt! I loath basting too! I have a stack of around 4 or 5 quilts to be quilted. Just HATE basting! Someday I’ll just do them all and then they’ll be all ready to go!
I so LOVE that quilting! Thanks for telling us about the washable marker. I struggle with knowing how to quilt when I don’t have lines to follow. And, it’s also nice to hear that someone like you who makes so many quilts still feels unable to do straight line quilting on your home machine to this degree on large quilts. Helps me feel better, because I can’t even seem to do easy straight line quilting on large
Gorgeous quilt, I LOVE the stitching on it!
I love the way you quilted it! Very nice
Beautiful quilt. What is your basting method?
It’s gorgeous – and the quilting is amazing!
Do you know if there is anyone in your area with a computerized long arm? Sometimes they will do basting for you really inexpensively. The long-armer I work for does it for $0.003 a square inch. That’s about $15 for a lap quilt. Totally worth it to not have to crawl around on the floor basting.
fabulous choice on the quilting. really love this one!
x
The quilting sets the patchwork style off really well Ashley.
That’s such a cool design — wonderful fabrics, too!
Have you tried basting spray? I use it, spraying my flimsies rather than the batt as the can directs, and I’ve had excellent results – with both straight line quilting and FMQ. And I don’t use safety pins, so the quilts roll up much smaller and lighter under the arm of the sewing machine!
I do use spray adhesive, which does make the process faster… I still just don’t enjoy that step though!
I love that purple couch fabric! I also love the straight line quilting you did, it looks awesome!
I love this quilt! And the quilting design is right on!
Love it so much. That line is fun and whimsy with the couches and chairs.
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Beautiful!!