Modern Churn Dash Ta dah!

This quilt has been in use for a while already, half quilted and unbound. I put it on the bed, just to see how it would look after I stitched in the ditch. There were still safety pins in it but that didn’t disturb Charlie in the least and he had his nap on it.

It stayed on the following day too and the day after that. Then I took it off and started quilting the pebbles. I can’t really call them circles as most of them are anything but round. Because they’re quite big I kept hitting my hand on the machine resulting in very wonky pebbles. Now, if this quilt had been for anyone else I would have ripped out all the stitches and done some straight line quilting but as it was always meant for me (it was made with the first fat quarter bundle I bought: Echo by Lotta Jansdotter) I thought it would be fun to continue and see if the quilting would improve. It did, a little.

Charlie asleep

I started hand quilting the churn dashes but then didn’t really like the look and instead quilted them half an inch from the edge with my walking foot. As I was showing my mum the quilt I realised that I’d forgotten to sew around one of the insides. I may go back and do it one day but maybe not. It’s quite fun to have a quilt that isn’t perfect. Apart from the fabric and thread, that is.

Charlie

Charlie was on my case while I was quilting and when I was sitting in the evening hand sewing the binding to the back, which by the way is Pearl Bracelets. Wherever the quilt was, Charlie was. It now resides on my bed again and Charlie is happily sleeping on it!

Modern Churn Dash

The quilt finished at 53″ x 68″ after washing and is perfect for snuggling and sleeping under. I pieced it with Aurifil  50wt (2600) and quilted it with a gorgeous variegated Aurifil 40wt (4669) in various shades of cream and blue.

This is another finish on my Finish-A-Long list, number four to be exact. I feel the need to take another picture of this quilt, maybe down by the lake, as this one was taken in the evening in lousy light.

Plus, Plus, Equal

My nephew turned eighteen at the beginning of February and a few days earlier I decided that I was going to make him a quilt. A bit last minute, I know. It had to be a quick make and I thought a wonky plus quilt would be fun.

My stash has a lot of girly fabric in it so finding proper ‘man fabrics’ was a little difficult. I managed, however, to find some Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander and Curious Nature by Parson Gray. Some Kona solids in blues, greens, greys and off white, Sketch in two different greys and two fat quarters from my LQS meant that I had enough for a biggish quilt.

Plus, plus, equal quiltI really enjoyed making the plusses, eighteen in total, and the one equal sign. At first I was going to make all wonky plusses but after making nine or ten and laying them out, they were too busy for my liking. I decided to make eighteen plusses and leave the rest of the squares plain. In the end I added the equal sign; just because I can.

Equal Sign

The quilting is straight lines 0.5″ on either side of the seam and then another two lines 1″ apart throughout the middle of the squares. I wanted to keep the quilt modern and, by not quilting too many lines, keep it nice and soft. The quilt was quilted with Aurifil 50wt in 5004, a dark grey, on the top and 2600 in the bobbin.

Plus, plus, equal

The backing is the oh so popular Britten numbers by Ikea. I thought it would fit this quilt perfectly. The binding is Pearl Bracelets by Lizzie House in Hi Ho Silver which I bought at Simply Solids.

Plus, Plus, EqualI love this quilt and I really hope that Leon will too. He’s a great lad who asked me to teach him to sew before I moved to Switzerland. We managed to make a pin cushion and cushion cover which he literally finished minutes before the removal company arrived to collect all my boxes.

Plus, Plus, Equal

The quilt is a little smaller than I would have liked (Leon is tall) but I ran out of fabrics. In the end it finished at 57″ x 66″.