5th Linus for 2009

I have finished one of the quilt tops made with squares donated by Kate. I had been spending all of my quilty time hand quilting, but have been having a thread breakdown, and needed some speed!
You see, I ran out of my ivory hand quilting thread last weekend. I popped into Joann's and got another. I got it home and it just seemed too thin, like it was really a machine quilt thread. The next day, I exchanged it for a Gutterman's which was in a hand-quilting thread display. After getting home, and comparing it to that which I had been using, it too was thin. UGH!...I then did what I should have done first...go here. I have thread on the way, I hope. So in the meantime, I decided to finish a Linus quilt for donation, and work on my 3 birthday block swap blocks (awaiting Feb 1 for showing).

It's just a simple, large meander quilting. Except for a couple of the red batik squares bleeding during washing, it looks really good. I tried my hand at a machine sewn binding. I make so many Linus quilts that I am constantly seeking a way to expedite the slower parts (ie, binding). But I typically have refused to do machined bindings as I think they usually look crappy. This time, I think I am onto something. I first machined it down very close to the edge of the binding. After this part, it did look pretty good. The trick was the busy print binding did masque any errors well. I then chose to do a blanket stitch over this. I like the look, and it will weat well. Now, to find a way to do this all in one step. The entire binding took about a bobbin and a half of thread, and about 45 minutes to do.

I thought that the backing was appropriate. It's a print with letters and postal stamps - very worldly...a nice touch since the 12 squares of this quilt came from all over the world!