My linen quilt is finished and wound up being a great project for learning.

Because I worked primarily with linen garment scraps, my color selection was decidedly different from the quilt I based this project on. I pieced via serger, which is guaranteed to be a pain. It also leads to a fair amount of seam bulk, which is challenging to quilt. I’m happy with the results in spite of the challenges.

I opted to lay the squares out in a squared off color wheel configuration.  I like how much movement it has, even with such simple piecing and a relatively broad color palette.  

Once the top was pieced, I added a wide border of a lovely Marimekko red print and a green linen Marimekko backing, both of which I scored at a Crate and Barrel outlet sale a few years ago. Then I pin-basted it and used a walking foot to quilt around the blocks in a grid.  

That first round of quilting convinced me that quilting the whole thing with a walking foot in relatively straight line designs was going to be tedious and uncomfortable, since it would mean hefting so much weight so many times: it’s a queen sized quilt, and garment linen is significantly heavier than quilting cottons.  So I forced myself to be brave and try free motion quilting on a large scale.  I’ve been hesitant to try it because it doesn’t come naturally to me, and I am far from expert, but the project made me much more comfortable with free motion quilting. I varied patterns and threads throughout the quilt and learned which styles I’m more comfortable with. The finished quilting makes sense with the scrappiness of the top.  I quilted the snot out of some of the sections and left others more open.  

I opted for a gorgeous blue-green shot cotton for a binding–I love it’s play against the red border. 

The finished quilt washed and dried up well, and this guy approves, so I’m calling it a victory.  

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