X and Plus Blocks

Back when I lived in St. Louis and was a member of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild, I was part of a bee, and one of the members had us make X and Plus blocks one month. It's a fun block to make, and a popular one. 

I've long thought about making an X and Plus quilt. But most of the images I've seen are a chaotic splash of colors. Even those that are symmetrical and laid out with care are usually blindingly bright or have nowhere to rest the eye. Then I saw this monochromatic version from Zen Chick - Brigitte Heitland. Much easier on the eyes than most versions! Click on the link and check it out. 

I have an overabundance of greens in my stash: an overflowing basket of green-greens, a pretty full basket of yellow-greens, and a very full basket of teals and blue-greens. I could make a similar version. 

Over the Christmas holidays I cut a few pieces and started making blocks. I'm using white on white or very subtle white ground prints for the triangles, all the same fabric within one block. Most of the green prints will be used in two blocks, but a few of the fabrics were scraps and will only be used once. 

I'll cut a few more pieces and make a few more blocks, and see where this is going. Thank you, Brigitte, for the inspiration! 

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

The Teal Quilt is Quilted

I cannot speak highly enough of the dedication and thoroughness and support of PCQ's long arm committee. They took seriously my issues with quilting the teal quilt. They scheduled a thread testing session and work day for themselves and invited me to bring my teal thread for them to test. 

They tweaked everything they possible could. They got the machine to quilt perfectly and I was able to start quilting my quilt. No more eyelashes on the back! 

Looking good! 

Two thirds of the way quilted, and I ran out of bobbin. After inserting the new bobbin, the machine made a funny sound and acted up again. Major eyelashes. The girls on the committee tweaked some more, did a lot of testing, and after four hours that afternoon, called it a day with plans to reconvene the next morning. I took the quilt off the frame, took it home and removed the bad quilting. 

Next morning the girls on the committee tweaked everything some more. They cleaned and adjusted everything again and again. They tried my teal thread and they tried white thread, same type. They tried different bobbins. They even tried a different bobbin case. Finally they were satisfied with the quilting and I was able to finish the last two passes. There were a couple of thread breaks and a couple of small birds nests on the underside, but those are small and near enough to the edge that I can unpick the bad parts and restitch on my domestic machine. 

I'm grateful to the members of the committee for their dedication to solving the problem and helping me get my project quilted. I hope no one else has to deal with such problems next time they're quilting. 

I have another reserved time slot on the 8th - this week! - and I'll be quilting my grandson's quilt with minky backing. Wish me luck!