"Positively"--a Finish!

A finished quilt!!!! With each project I stitch, I try something different.

What inspired me to make the quilt was the seven inch exchange squares from Fall retreat in 2014. I wrote about it here. Also what inspired me to make the quilt was the book our quilting book club discussed, "Where Lilacs Bloom," by Jane Kirkpatrick.

The book is about the history of the Hulda Kluger lilacs. I did enjoy reading the book and since I am a farmer's daughter, I could relate to the farming excerpts in the book! 





I chose the "plus" design, because it reminded me of plant markers. Also, Hulda always had people helping her with her plants and people that she helped by also providing room and board. She had many "plus ones" at meal time!
To read more about the piecing for the top and back, click here.

I used straight line quilting which reminded me of what a field looked like when we would work it for planting. 

Hulda was a star in terms of growing new lilac varieties so I quilted one large star and a couple parts of large stars; but, you can't see it in the background. I know that they are there though! I made a freezer paper template for my quilting design!

I also used Wonderfil's Invisafil thread to quilt the piece in gray. Invisafil is like a 100wt polyester. I have used it in the bobbin on embroidery pieces; but, had originally purchased it to quilt with it. My first attempts with my 1630 Bernina was that it was okay in the bobbin; but, I couldn't get the tension adjusted well enough to use it in the needle. So, I didn't use it.

When I purchased my 780, I tried again. I found that I needed to reduce the tension on the top or I had thread breakage when I used the walking foot. I had no adjustments to make if I free motioned quilted. Wasn't that an interesting discovery? The gray thread blends well and you have to look to see it.

Eventually, this quilt will be a gift to a new baby. Since, the ultimate purpose of this quilt is for a baby, I wanted the quilt to have some texture so this thread worked great for creating the subtle texture. 

This is my label. . .upside down. . .but, you can get the idea! I used a part of a sawtooth star that was left from Dad's Stars. I've left room to add the baby information when that time comes!

I stitched the binding totally by machine! I liked this application so much in terms of a time saver that I plan to work on perfecting the process on future quilt bindings. 

I finished stitching the corners closed on the binding, the sleeve and the label. The handwork goes much faster when one has already applied the binding totally by machine!

New tries: freezer paper quilting template,
straight line quilting, Wonderfil Invisafil polyester thread, machine stitched binding. 

I used ALL of the seven inch squares in the design. I've had the green fabric in my stash for years and I used all of it in this project! It measures about 32"w x 48"l.

Finished feels GREAT!!!