Not So Gross finishes nicely

I mentioned in my last post that the Not So Gross Quilt had been picked up again after a "temporary" abandonment since July - ahem!

This was Not So Gross as I left her then

and here she is now

sporting white borders, quilting which is not wiggly lines (please note as it doesn't happen often!) and yummy Kona Cactus binding.

Wavy lines have become my favourite quilting style this year because a) I think they look good, b) they look slightly modern in style, thereby making me appear cooler than I am (who am I kidding?) and c) they are a relatively quick quilting method for a girl who's really more a patchworker than a quilter at heart.

However, this quilt top wasn't really speaking wavy lines to me when it came time to consider quilting her. I felt I needed to preserve the steps and stairs look of the patchwork and so some echo quilting in the white spaces seemed more appropriate.  When I got to the blank, and frankly not very interesting, space of the border I wondered if I might bring the wiggles back but experiment a little and try to make the wiggles overlap.  Then I saw exactly what I had in my head on this gorgeous cushion from Jeliquilts and knew I had to give it a go.

I would say while the first efforts were a bit dodgy (see right border), these intertwining waves got better as I went along (see bottom border).  I found it difficult to keep them wide so that the the shapes created by the interlocking lines of stitching looked more interesting, but think I was getting there by the third and fourth sides of the border, and it is something I would like to try again.

Not So Gross is now waiting patiently in line for her turn in my washing machine (where did all that laundry come from?) before she will be donated to Bee Blessed.

Details for making the blocks for this quilt are here if you are interested.

The Not So Gross Quilt

This is the 'Not So Gross Quilt' - like it?

I could have just called it 'Steps and Stairs' but since it's made up of 144 white strips and 144 patterned strips which are then made into 144 of pairs before becoming the 16 blocks that make up this little quilt, I thought I should add the word 'gross' in somewhere.  But, since it's quite a nice little quilt top and not actually gross at all, it is the 'Not So Gross Quilt'.

If you fancy a little quick quilt gratification for a 48" square top, here's the 'how to':

Cut 144 white strips 2.5" x 4.5"
and 144 patterned/coloured strips 2.5" x 4.5" - 9 strips of same fabric needed for each of the 16 blocks.  (I used 16 co-ordinating jelly roll strips for this quilt and was able to cut all 9 patterned strips for one block from each jelly roll strip.)

Pair each white strip with one patterned strip, chain piecing all 144 pairs along the 4.5" edge. (Watch out for your bobbin thread running out, I had happily stitched about 20 pairs after the bobbin emptied before I realised - doh!).

Press all seams towards the patterned fabric (this is a gross part).

Now collect each set of 9 squares into little piles and decide on the placement of your patterned fabrics for the main 16 blocks.  It is important to decide on these before you sew the block together as the quilt is actually constructed from two different blocks (block A and block B) and you won't 

necessarily be able to swap the block placement once they are made up, unless it's with another block of similar layout.  

(The eagle eyed among you will note that I fell foul of this myself and the layout above is not the layout of my final quilt - so be warned, I speak from experience, though my error was that I forgot that rows 2 and 4 would start with a B block, rather than an A block.  Yet again - doh!)

The next step is to lay out each of your blocks.  The layout for each block is shown in the pic above.

Lay out all eight block As and all eight block Bs in piles to make chain piecing simpler.

Now chain piece the blocks and make up just as you would for any standard nine patch block until all 16 blocks are finished.

Once your blocks are pieced, trim them square and lay them out alternating block A with block B (and remembering, unlike me, that the second and fourth rows start with block B). Finally, piece your blocks into rows and join into a quilt top that's not so gross after all!