My big quilting project for the labor day weekend is done, and I am REALLY happy with the way it turned out (note that I think I started this quilt in February!). This is the Stacked Coins quilt from Joelle Hoverson’s Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. I picked it as a showcase for the totally awesome Katie Jump Rope fabric from Denyse Schmidt that I got for Christmas last year.



Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting good light at a time of day I could take a photo, so I don’t think it actually looks as colorful in these shots as it is. But I think you’ll get the idea.


There were a lot of firsts for me on this quilt, and it all turned out really well. I designed a swirl pattern that would fit the border just the way I wanted and then traced it. I’m not great at following the lines, but it helps me keep things pretty well lined up.



I also created a template for the geometric pattern that I quilted in the vertical brown columns. I’m pretty amazed at how even it looks!



And as you can see, I made the bold decision to quilt most of this (all but the curlie-q’s in the stacked coins themselves) in a lovely bright green thread. I initially was going to do a matching brown, but after I tested it, it had to be the green. Pretty bold move for a fairly inexperienced quilter, but I just love how it looks!


After all this gingham love I’ve been seen on the web these days, it’s no wonder that when I went to pick out the backing I suddenly thought, “Right! Gingham!”


But I couldn’t have just a solid gingham back, so I pieced together some leftover scraps. Then I had to do a little geometry to figure out how to make it into a block that I could easily piece into the back. That was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be (it’s no partial derivatives, but still!).

I’m surprised and really pleased at how well all the quilting shows up on this gingham print. Actually, the first thing I did before any of the free motion or the pattern quilting was to stitch in the ditch of the major seams using nylon for the top thread. I thought this worked really well, and it shows up nicely on the back.

The final size of this quilt is 50 1/4 x 63 1/2 inches, just a little less than the pattern said it should be. I’m sure it’s all the heavy quilting in the border. The only thing left to do for this is make a label (I always forget about that part!).