Lined

My seventh Bee Sewcial quilt in as many years, I'm thrilled to be able to add this new one to my collection.

The fine-line piecing prompt delighted me from the moment I thought of it, and with every block my beemates (and others!) made, my delight just grew. So here's what I had to work with when all the blocks were in and it was time to begin puzzling.

The blocks spent several weeks on the design wall being shuffled around; and eventually, I came up with a layout I really liked. For better or worse, things changed somewhat once the piecing actually began, which is all part of the improvisational process, am I right?

I tried really hard while piecing the blocks together to have at least one fine line touching another in the neighboring block. That 'rule' definitely added more complication than necessary, but I like that I tried. Not always successful, but still. I also used quite a variety of blue solids [Kona Deep Blue, Nautical, Nightfull, Storm to name a few] to build things out around the blocks, using Kona Pickle for the fine lines. With all those wily seams, I decided to lightly spray and block the quilt top overnight, right-side down, before moving on to one last press, and then basting.

Not my norm, but I decided a wideback was definitely in order for a backing, and thanks to Emily Dennis' new The Wideback Shop, I found a Ruby Star Society Speckled wide back in navy that suited this quilt perfectly.

For quilting, I used Aurifil 50wt 2784 [Dark Navy]. The design was an angled grid based off this 'X' block by Ken/@thekingslacker. 

I marked angled lines 1.5" by 3" away from the line before it in all four directions. It ended up that left some definite wide spots at some edges, so I went back in and added some angled lines from each corner. Kinda hard to explain but it made sense at the time. ha.

The quilt measures just about 58" square, and is finished off with a faced binding. I opted for the single-fold method this time, using the tutorial by Audrey/@cottonandbourbon. 

An unexpected surprise in choosing the palette I did - at least two dark blues in each block along with the gold-green lines - was the 'glow' that resulted. It really adds to the quilt's overall appeal I think. Anyway, I'm so pleased with the work my beemates did. With this one, I didn't have an 'end' design in mind at all, so the blocks really drove the design, with Leanne's circular block near center, Marci's 'pointed' blocks pointing off the quilt, Ken's 'X' inspiring the quilting, and the rest in supporting roles. Many thanks, once again,  to my BeeSewcial beemates Leanne, Marci, Felicity, Karen, 

Stephanie, Ken, and M-R.

Here are links to my previous Bee Sewcial quilts - Mod Mood, Baconrific, Looking Up, Homage, Modular, and Rings, if you missed them.