Finished: Make it Easier

In early June I finished this "Make it Easier" quilt. It is my own quilt design, meant to teach new quilters methods for making different quilt blocks. I had originally designed a quilt with more blocks, and therefore more labor intensive, but students in classes at the Lifelong Learning College gave me feedback that they wanted to make something with fewer techniques. Hence, "Make it Easier" was designed.

It finishes at 52" X 58", and it does a nice job of providing opportunities to make blocks using different techniques. And all that negative space is an invitation for different FMQ designs.

Batting is double. It's Quilter's Dream - a layer of Request loft poly with a layer of wool on top. Quilting is with Aurifil 50-weight thread. I started quilting with orange thread to do the ruler work arrows. Those are inspired by KathleenQuilts longarm designs. If you need quilting ideas, be sure to follow her blog as she provides lots of inspiration and design ideas for doing what she does so well on an APQS machine. I'm still trying to emulate the look of longarm quilting.

Those circles that look like "drops" on the points of the green and orange chevrons were also inspired by Kathleen's work. 

I'm tickled that I was able to meet-up with Kathleen when I attended QuiltCon 2015 in Austin. We agreed to meet at a particular time in front of my "Shapes" quilt, my bias tape challenge entry. Kathleen is a fun and funky Canadian gal with loads of talent. I admire what she can do, and being so young too! She'll be teaching at QuiltCon 2017.

I also used this quilt as an opportunity to show how four different fabrics can be used for binding on each of the four sides of the quilt. It's the method I've named "No Tails Binding: Mitered Corners by Machine."

MQG members can register to watch my September 29 webinar on this technique, but if you're not an MQG member, you can check out this method on my 2009 No Tails Binding tutorial. After the webinar, I'll be updating that tutorial.

I'm happy with how "Make it Easier" turned out. Especially since I started quilting it on my Pfaff Grand Quilter with all its problems with skipped stitches and broken threads. (Turns out the problem wasn't with the machine, but rather the foot! Happily though, I was able to sell the Pfaff when I learned there was nothing wrong with it!) I finished quilting this on my new Janome 1600P.

 All's well that ends well. Linda