I am so excited. Â I have all the charity quilt tops that Michele sent me finished. Â YaHoo!!
This quilt was so fun to work with…let me tell you why.
I am a long time reader of Country Threads blog, Chicken Scratch. Â Yes, the quilt shop did close but Mary of Country Threads’ fame writes on. Â I love keeping track of Mary through the blog and seeing the projects that she’s working on. Â If you know Mary you know that retirement doesn’t mean slowing down!!
Anyway now that all the employees are gone Mary is having to quilt her own quilts. Â She has been going with simple straight line quilting. Â I thought about trying it but didn’t exactly know how to tackle it. Â Then Mary wrote a blog post explaining about what she had been doing. Â You can read it here. Â Anyway, I decided to give it a try on this charity quilt top. Â I’ve said before that I love working with charity quilt tops because I can practice my quilting on them and that’s exactly what I did with this one.
Can you see the straight lines? Â It sure gives it a simpler clean look…for this quilt, it really worked.
I did end up with a little problem…
Look at the picture below and you can see….Mary said that she uses the design and follows it. Â I did that only to realize that on this quilt top the part on the block that sticks out isn’t the same width as the inside width of the blocks make some of my lines closer together.
I started out panicking about that but then decided that as long as I was consistent throughout the whole quilt it wouldn’t be a crime. Â Perfect no but not worth ripping out about three rows….
I used a variegated thread in turquoise. Â I loved the look. Â The lines aren’t perfect but not bad. Â I didn’t use a single ruler…just free handed it.
Perfect no but I am very happy with it.
So the question…will I do it again. Â YES, YES, YES!!!! Â It is a little boring but a good audio book can make most any tedious task just fine.
Thanks for the quilt tops Michele. Â I am sure the people who get these quilts are going to love them. Â If anyone has quilt tops that they would like me to quilt and donate to charity, you can drop me a note at rogjok@iowatelecom.net. Â I’d be happy to finish them for you and send them on to a charitable organization.
To see other finished quilts check out  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Link a Finish Friday.
Hi Jo!
First off Love your blog, so many things going on in your life :). Second which charity do you send the quilts to? Have a happy quilty day!
Didn’t I tell you that if I could do it, anyone could? Boring, yes, but I love the simplicity and right now I have several tops waiting to be quilted. They will come to the top of the list soon!
I love this quilt! What is the name of the pattern?
That pattern is so simple and clean looking. What size are the strips? Told my friend about the toilet paper episode. She had a good laugh. I know you didn’t but it sounds exactly like a little tyke being bored and having an excellent way to compensate.
Thanks, Dotti
I enjoy your blog and like the variety of topics. I have a question about the amount of machine quilting needed when you do straight line quilting. I know some of the quilts I’ve seen have many lines of quilting which I think is part of their design but may not be necessary on a charity quilt or even a cuddle quilt. If I counted correctly you have 15 lines per block plus the two shared lines where the block rows are sewn together. Would it be possible to have fewer lines? As I would be using my sewing machine for the quilting and could easily do some vertical lines, I know I would quilt fewer horizontal lines. Any input you could provide would be useful. I, too, really like this pattern. Thanks!
Jo, I love the simplicity of the straight lines and I think the random widths add to the interest factor – definitely no ripping out required!!
Like Susan said, random does add interest…besides, it was a design decision to fit with the more organic feel of the quilt, right?? LOL It looks great and will be well loved!!!
Straight line quilting is very effective and I am impressed that you varied the distance between the lines because I think it adds the unexpected interest we all strive to add to our quilts.