straight and narrow

Back in March, when Cheryl came to visit, we brainstormed a bunch of quilt ideas. One of them was for an almost whole cloth quilt. We split two pieces of neutral solids and we challenged each other to make a quilt that really focused on the quilting. It was a fun challenge.  

In my original vision for this quilt, I pictured something loud and colorful for the backing. But I had the ochre solid in my stash, and I thought it would be a good choice IF I could find that "just right" binding fabric. Some rummaging through my stash yielded this great squiggle fabric that matched the backing and went well with the front. Thrilled (and a little bit shocked) with my discovery, I pulled thread colors to match and I was all set!

Enter basting an a ton of straight line quilting, and here you have my straight and narrow quilt! [I reserve the right to call it that, even if very few of my lines are straight! :)] I started by marking quilting lines every 6", but then I went back and marked every 3". The rest I eyeballed as I quilted lines 1/4"-1/3" apart. A TON of lines. I changed thread colors randomly throughout the quilt. There was some (much) frustration with the quilting, but I worked through it. It's good to learn something with every quilt you make!

The quilt fell and landed beautifully when I was taking photos. I love seeing the contrast from the front to the back with the binding all at once.

The backing is fabric is an organic cotton that I found for $1/yard (!!!) at Hancock Fabrics. When I bought it I couldn't decide if it was ugly or so, so good. I decided it was deliciously ugly. :) I bought 5 yards that day and knew that someday I would use it for something! I'm so glad I did! My husband couldn't see my vision for it at the time (he thought it was straight up ugly!) but now he sees that it's not bad at all. The color scheme gives this quilt a decidedly fall feeling. Perfect timing! It was so fun to work in colors out of my normal color scheme.

This fabric is from my dear friend Linda. (Thanks, Linda!) I love, love, LOVE it as the binding. I attached it with my machine on both sides. That top stitching sure makes me happy. :) It matches the machine quilting so nicely.

I will admit that my quilt turned out quite different than I had originally anticipated, but the results are something I LOVE. I think it will be an instant favorite in our family. I wish you feel the quilt, because the texture is incredible! It measures 50" x 63".

Make sure to check out what Cheryl did with her quilt here. It's stunning!