Piece and Quilt Hop Along {week 2}

Welcome back for Week 2 of the Piece and Quilt Hop Along. For those just  joining–my friends HollyAnne, Vicki, and I are quilting along in Christa Watson’s new book Piece and Quilt with Precuts. You can check out last week’s post here.

Squiggles Quilt

This week I finished up the Squiggles quilt top and could not be more pleased with how it came out! Such a bright and happy quilt! It was so quick and easy to make–lots of chain piecing–and not too many seams to worry about matching.

So, next up is my least favorite part–basting. I’ll spare you the late night, grainy pictures of that, but I spray basted, which is my favorite way to baste these days. Christa does some simple wavy line walking foot quilting on her version in the book. I’ve been wanting to try that motif on a full quilt for a while now. It seems like it would be so fun and relaxing. And, as it turns out–it is!

First up was securing the quilt by quilting the wavy line right down each column of blocks.  The photo above shows the back of the quilt (cutest backing fabric or what?! Again–Creekside by Moda)

Then it was simply filling in each column of blocks with about four more lines of wavy stitching. My new Juki did not disappoint! It was so much easier to get a full quilt through that luxurious throat space!

The quilting went quickly over a couple of evenings. I’m totally obsessed with the show Victoria right now–so it went quickly! Now all is left to bind! Let’s see if I can get that done before next week. I’m really looking forward to having this quilt finished–I just love it. And, my college-bound daughter has her eye on it. I’d love to send her with a little extra quilt love when she heads back to school next week.

Quilting Practice

In addition to the hours I put in on the wavy line quilting, I also practiced some other motifs from the book. I started off with a free-motion arrowhead motif, which is like a spiraling triangle. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this one, but as soon as I figured out how to get it to fill a space, I was hooked! Again, a low-stress design that would be perfect for a boy quilt or any bright, geometric fabric.

Next up was what Christa calls crazy-eights. This is basically ribbon candy that overlaps and can be a bit…messier. Sounds good to me! It still needs some work (it got really messy in a few places), but it is really fun and fills a space so quickly! I look forward to continuing to practice this one.

It’s not too late for  you to grab a copy of Piece and Quilt with Precuts, pick your favorite quilt and sew along with us for the next four weeks! If you do, use the hastag #pieceandquilthopalong on Instagram to share your work. We’d love to see it!