Ringing in the New Year & Quilting in the New Year

Fusing the Grid Series Completed New Year's Day

New Year's Eve was spent quilting the night away with a fellow quilting friend.  While I was hoping to complete one or two last UFOs before the year ended...it was not meant to be.  However, we continued the quilting fun on New Year's Day and both made some significant quilting progress!

Both days were spent working to complete the four quilt tops started in Sue Benner's Fuse the Grid workshop.  Each of the four tops was layered and awaiting quilting, quilt labels and binding, yielding four finished quilts each 16" square.

Fuse the Grid:  Explosion

Two of the quilt tops were done with free motion designs. "Explosion" was done using Leah Day's Pipe Maze motif.  I still struggle to FMQ straight lines and sharp angles, but this was a great project to practice upon.





The second quilt, Fireworks featured free motion quilting motifs that radiate out from each of the metallic center squares.

Fuse the Grid:  Fireworks

The next two quilts were quilted entirely with my walking foot using some of the techniques learned in Jacquie Gering's Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot Craftsy class.

Fusing the Grid:  9-Patch

Detail of Matchstick Quilted lines every 1/8" on 9-Patch

9-Patch features matchstick quilting was accomplished starting with straight lines every 1/2", which were then subdivided lines at 1/4" intervals and once again yielding lines every 1/8".  This type of quilting was very meditative but I can't imagine doing a large quilt in this technique as it takes quite a bit of time and thread.  But the texture is absolutely fantastic!!

Tic-Tac-Toe features a square spiral that radiates out from the center.  Again, I stitched spiral squares at 1/2" intervals and then subdivided into 1/4" lines.

Fuse the Grid:  Tic-Tac-Toe

Finished Fuse the Grid Series