Thursday, November 09, 2023

Road Trip Quilt - 3 inch block finish!

 I'm excited to say that I've finally finished the first of my three Road Trip quilts!  This project isn't an official Island Batik Ambassador challenge, but I've used fabrics received from the Ambassador program to make it.


I had a bit of a setback when I started quilting - I had quilted about 7 rows when I saw that the back was getting puckers.  I really wanted to just keep on quilting and hope it would be ok, but I am thinking I may want to enter this quilt in a couple of shows.  Sigh.  So I sat myself down this weekend and took out the bad stitching.


I repressed the front and the back of the quilt, then used lots of painters tape to make sure the backing was perfectly smooth.  I layered it with Hobbs Thermore batting because it's nice and thin - great for small quilts or table runners!  I then pinned it with more pins than the first time.  I made a few adjustments to my tension and off I went for round two of the quilting!


And it went great!  I am so happy with the stitching, and the texture is amazing!  I like this diagonal cross hatching on mini quilts, it adds texture, but doesn't overwhelm the small piecing.  I used 50 wt Aurifil thread for the quilting in a very pale green.


Isn't it gorgeous?  I love this fabric collection - Naturescape by Jerry Khiev for Island Batik.  I received it in last year's summer ambassador shipment.  It's so pretty!  How big would you guess this quilt is by looking at it?  It's 28 1/2 x 32 inches.  A bit large for a mini quilt, but very satisfying!

I'm so glad I took the time to re-sandwich it. The back is perfect, not one pucker! And the tension is much better in the stitching.  Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do the hard thing, like taking out several rows of stitching.  I would totally have regretted not doing it.


Now I just have to add a hanging sleeve and decide where to put it!  I've had a lot of people ask about the pattern for this quilt.  This is from my Road Trip Quilt Along.  If you are interested in the patterns, I have made them available in all three sizes - you can find them at the link below:

Purchase and download your Road Trip pattern here!


Island Batik Blog Hop!

And don't forget the Island Batik Ambassador blog hop this week!  Here is the schedule:

November 7:

November 8:

November 9:

And the giveaway!  It ends tomorrow, so make sure you enter now!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!  See you next week with my project!

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

You did a fabulous job with this. When we want to, it is always right to follow our gut and remove the bad stitches. Congratulations on a gorgeous finish!