improv quilts

Cross Cut Finish

It’s not often that I finish a quilt, all on my own, within a few days of piecing it. I have a habit of setting quilt tops aside and moving on to the next project. I am really excited to show you my completed Cross Cut quilt.

It took me a little time to decide how I wanted to quilt it. I noticed a little, somewhat fractured, heart in the quilt. This wasn’t planned by me; I didn’t see it until I started looking at the quilt after the top was sewn together. See it there, a little left of center?

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My 423 quilt is 17″ square.

So I began to think about that little fractured heart, about what I should name this quilt, and how to quilt it. And just like that, an idea popped into my head.

One of my favorite verses from the Bible is Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

So this little mini is named 423 after that verse. Inside the heart, I made some simple curved lines to represent a spring or spray of water. Then I just stitched an echo around the outside of the heart. Nothing too risky or fancy, just keeping it simple.

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Some simple curved lines to represent the spring/spray

Here’s the echo work. I just eyeballed it and stitched away.

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I decided to use a black and white fabric from my stash for the backing, and red fabric for the binding. Here’s a picture of the stitching on the back.

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You can see the spring/spray a little if you look closely.
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Top, back and binding on display

I’m still getting comfortable with machine quilting on my domestic, so this is far from perfect, but I’m excited because I had an idea, and I actually made it work!

The black and white fabrics in the quilt are Thicket by Gingiber for Moda; the colors are Riley Blake Crayola solids. I used a spool of red Gutermann thread that I had on hand for the machine quilting.

The one frustrating thing during the machine quilting process was that my walking foot was causing some problems. I would stitch along just fine, and then all of a sudden my needle would just drop out. I checked to make sure the walking foot was on correctly. I made sure the needle was tightly screwed into place. It was so annoying. The needle stayed threaded (no breakage); it just dropped out of its holding. I used spray baste (could that be the problem, even if the needle didn’t feel tacky?) and used Warm & Natural batting. If you have any advice, I’d be happy to hear it.

So that’s my Friday Finish — my little 423.

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

I’m linking up today with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Wendy

9 Comments

  • Karen Goad

    I like your quilt and the quilting. I use a Juki for any machine quilting I do and normally have no problems but there has been a time or two that my needle has come loose and broke as it fell out – the old machine I used to use a low end Janome did it all the time. I find now that before I machine quilt and part way through each session I tend to check and see if my needle is tight out of habit I guess -I didn’t realize others had a problem with that too

    • piecefulwendy

      Thanks, Karen! The needle thing is an annoyance, but for now I can put up with it. Good to know others have experienced it, though. Maybe I’ll get some answers!

  • Linda

    Very cool design. The spray should have no affect. I’d just check the tightness of your needle every so often. Maybe it’s just coming loose as you FMQ.

  • cjh

    I’ve heard before that a walking foot can cause the needle screw to loosen. Just being aware to tighten it regularly may be the solutions

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