Askew

When mom came home from a visit to Alaska a few months ago, she had a beautiful gift of fabric tucked away for me. She had visited The Material Girls quilt shop in Fairbanks, leaving with several yards of Moda Calypso Sunrise batiks - blue, green, and teal - some of my favorite colors.

I definitely wanted to do something kinda modern with them, maybe even improv. I had the idea of a low-volume background so the batiks would really pop against it. In my very own stash I found a perfect choice - the "Cuneiform Script Aged" from Katarina Roccella's REcollection for Art Gallery Fabrics.

So I went with wonky crosses, one of my best-loved blocks. This time, though, there were no consistent block sizes and no even rows, which made for alot of fun on the design wall, a little less when it came time to piece the blocks together. In fact it took some minor surgery with a seam ripper once the top was complete to get it back together and laying flat.

The back, on the other hand, went flawlessly, and I love the supersized crosses that echo the front.

For quilting, nothing too complicated was necessary, so I went with organic straight-line with Aurifil 50wt #2024 (white). This is really a method of quilting that I enjoy. No matter what size of quilt, I mark it in half using my hera marker, then again several inches apart on both sides of center. On this quilt (45"x48"), I marked every 6", then quilted down those lines. From there, no marking! I just quilted down the center between two quilted lines, wobbling along with purpose. Continue and repeat, over and over again. I wanted plenty of texture on this quilt, so my lines of quilting are roughly 3/8" apart.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't show well in any of my photos, but the binding consists of all 3 cross fabrics, and I think it sets them off well.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable sew, and I'm glad. Because now it's time to face some deadline sewing . . . oh joy.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.