The University Quilt

In spite of the distraction of the virus scarf (see last post), I didn't give up entirely on unpicking the broken quilting on the latest quilt I have been making for my son.  About three weekends in, I really did think it was never going to end though.  The problem is when you do a really great spray basting job, there's just no quick way to unpick quickly!

So, I finally set aside the seam ripper and gave the quilt another press before hanging it over the bannisters to contemplate my next move.  I ordered alternative thread and then sat down to play with quilting ideas.

The doodling was quite fun actually.  I considered the four designs above.  The top left diagonal cross hatch was ruled out just because it was too much work after all the quilting I'd already been through.  Top right is a square spiral set on point - I loved the idea of this one but thought that it might be a lot of switching and turning and twisting, and also I always think a spiral is best quilted when you can do it all in one go, which was just never going to happen here.  The two bottom options were my favoured choices.  Both section the quilting in quadrants and then echo the quadrant lines out.  Given the scales of the blocks,  I was able to afford to quilt a little wider apart than I sometimes can, so this suited my lazyitis / broken heart from unpicking previous efforts.  IG helpers seemed to like the diagonal quadrants best, which was handy because so did I and it made finalising the decision very easy.  So new thread, quilt design, chalk and ruler and off I went.

The quilting lines are approx 3" apart and look well on this quilt - not that you can probably tell from my pathetic photography efforts.  I have to say that the quadrant split was really useful when working on a small domestic machine.  You aren't having to haul and push as much bulk through the machine throat.  I'd recommend it.

So, although there were some metaphorical tears along the way, the quilt is now bound and beautiful and I think probably my favourite 'man-quilt' to date.  As I mentioned, DS wants to keep it for university (he's a little ahead of himself) which is grand.  I'm just chuffed he's happy with it!  And, also very chuffed that it's done!!