On the Plus Side

That's what I've named this quilt.

I used the Comma fabric line and the "It's a Plus" pattern.  Both are by Zen Chic.
I wanted to have this quilt finished in time to hang at an exhibition at the Lowell Quilt Festival that the BMQG has been lucky enough to be part of.

I finished in time, but just barely.  The setup for the show was Wednesday afternoon.  I basted the quilt Saturday night and started the quilting on Sunday morning.    I liked the way the suggested quilting pattern looked and decided to go for it. What could be easier than straight line stitching, right?  Silly me.

Each square is quilted individually.  There are four continuous rows of stitching.  That means I had to turn the quilt 15 times for each square.  There are 80 squares.  Yes, I turned the quilt 1200 times.  Just ask my back and shoulders.   Did I mention this quilt is 65" x 85"?  
I timed myself and figured it took about 5 1/2 minutes for each square, depending on where the square was located on the quilt.  That comes out to about 7 1/2 hours of stitching to fit in with a full-time job.

My original intent was to use just a black print for the binding.  However, when I went to piece the binding, I realized that a couple of strips must have fallen off my table and into the trash barrel. The same barrel that had been emptied first thing in the morning and whose contents were now on a joyride in the back of the pretty blue trash truck.  I gathered some scraps trimmed from the back and added them to the black strips.  A happy accident! I like the way it looks.

The back is a mix of a fat quarter bunch that I won at retreat, some leftover blocks and a little bit of yardage.  And, on the plus side, this quilt is one of my finishes for the 3rd quarter Finish-A-Long.

Now on to some fun stuff!

I bought this cute bundle of fat quarters at the Lowell Quilt Festival.  It's called "Don't Be Crabby" for Robert Kaufman.  The pattern I plan to make is from Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley.

Joyful stitching,
jane