The Domestic Quilter: Machine Quilting & Binding: Christmas Color Block Quilt

So excited to get this quilt completed. To celebrate, I entered it in the Sisters Quilt Show, which will be held on July 12. If you go, look for this among the many entries!

The quilt is made entirely of Christmas flannel prints. I had cut large panels of fabric for another quilt and decided to slice into those to make this fun log cabin quilt. I used Quilter's Dream polyester black batting. Polyester traps heat so this quilt is a warmer. Polyester batting is also a good choice if you plan to hang a quilt; it doesn't stretch like cotton or wool batting. Polyester is often added to cotton and wool batting just to give those natural fibers some added stability.

Each block was pieced improvisational, meaning I did not follow a pattern or give much forethought to color placement in construction. I started with a center poinsettia and began to add "logs" to the cabin, making decisions as I went along. The blocks varied in size, but were roughly 12" square. I added wide black strips to each block and squared the final block to 16". When sewn together, the black strips created the solid background that the blocks "float" on.

For the quilting, I used Superior Thread's Masterpiece 50/3 cotton thread for the top and bottom threads for stitching-in-the-ditch between the logs. For surface quilting, I used the King Tut 40/3 cotton for the top thread and kept the Masterpiece 50/3 (Color #135--DaVinci) in the bobbin. I used this same green thread in the bobbin for all the quilting, even when I switched the top thread. I also used a 90/14 topstitch needle.

Stitching-in-the-ditch with a walking foot (feed dogs are up) and Masterpiece thread in the top and bobbin:

For surface quilting on top of the blocks, I switched the top thread to King Tut's #1002 Holly & Ivy.

For free motion quilting the background swirl design, I switched the top thread to King Tut's #977 Ebony and used a free motion foot (Bernina's open toe foot #24) and lowered the feed dogs to allow full range of motion to quilt in any direction. See previous post for how I quilt in the ditch and along the edge of the quilt.