Down to the Wire

Whew! Two weeks to make two start-to-finish quilts is almost more than this old gal can handle! But I reached my goal to finish Urban Abacus, a design by Sew Kind of Wonderful by year end, upping my quilt tally by one.

This quilt design is one of three Sew Kind of Wonderful designs, using the Quick Curve Ruler, that I will teach in the Beyond First Time Quiltmaking series in March and May. If you're local, and interested, click the "Schedule" tab above.

Assorted fabrics from my stash were chosen in a limited color pallet (orange and aqua are two favorites) and include pieces of a favorite collection: Terra Australis by Emma Jean Jansen. Background fabric is Kona white; vertical bars and binding are grey Crosshatch by Carolyn Friedlander.

For free motion quilting, I took my cues from the pattern cover quilt. Jenny quilts on a longarm, so it was a fun challenge for me to get a look similar to hers. To make the hundreds of spaced lines, I used two different lengths of Fine Line Rulers. I used the eight inch ruler to quilt the bars.

And I used the short, six inch ruler to quilt the "beads." Here's a short video.

 Quilting is fairly dense; I spent about 15 hours at my Pfaff, quilting this 51" X 66" quilt.

From the back...

Urban Abacus brings my 2014 total to 12 quilts made this year. See all 12 quilts by clicking the "2014 Quilts" tab above.

I'm not about to set any quilt goals for next year. I've learned that unplanned events happen - sometimes a health concern - that can make goal-setting a disappointing failure. Instead, I choose to look on the positive side, and review what was accomplished the previous year. That's what I'll be doing in my next blog post. Linda