Kärshult cushion

When I was in the house in Sweden I was inspired to make a quilt. I also wanted to make something to give to the house as a gift. Making a second quilt would have taken too long (it's been 7 months since we were there and the first quilt is not finished) so I decided to make a quilted cushion cover. Originally I wanted to use one of the log cabin blocks from the quilt but when I was experimenting with the colours I made a block that I knew wouldn't work in the actual quilt but which would be great for the cushion. The difference is only in the main quilt the central colour is dark blue whereas in this block it is yellow.

I've quilted in the same way as the main quilt with straight lines. I'm quite pleased with it. I did originally want the other side to be plain with perhaps an envelope opening but on reflection I'm going to make it reversible. I want to have flying geese and the dark blue fabric in the cushion to represent the weekend as it was for me.

Kärshult. Quilting.

I've made an effort to get the quilting complete on this project. The issue is it's so large manipulating it through the small harp space of my machine is a pain. And because I can't move it about I have had to stay with straight line quilting and many, many thread breaks. It was frustrating at first so I only did a little at a time however I'm now in a routine with it so it's not too bad.

There are 6 of these sections, each with 4 log cabin blocks. In the dark section I have quilted radiating lines from the point of the dark green to points at the ends of the strips (11 lines in total each log cabin block). This is to represent the rays of light/star light as it's a starry night block formation.  In the light sections I have quilted 2 parallel lines in each strip. I've also tried to stitch in the ditch where possible however the high number of thread breaks is bad enough giving myself more. So apologies to Cindy Needham, who always does this and whom I respect deeply for her wonderful quilting knowledge, but I would have grown to hate the quilt if I'd had to do any more thread breaks.

I have 2 of these sections complete and another started. There is light at the end of the tunnel! All the other quilting is done (borders/flying geese) so when the log cabin sections are complete I'll have the binding and label to do.

It has been an interesting project. My family like it best of the quilts I have done so far. And I have learned so much. The most important being I will be doing quilt as you go or smaller quilts from now on.

Kärshult. Quilt top.

I've completed the quilt top. In the end I didn't use the yellow fabric. It just didn't seem to fit anywhere. It's not a huge problem as I really just chose it thinking I needed another light colour but it was too bright to be light. 

I was pleased with how the flying geese turned out. They were a bit of a pain to master (I still haven't got the hang of the Fons and Porter ruler) but they look better than I thought they would in the quilt.

I know it looks as if they are sewn in strips along the length of the quilt but due to the shape of it I'm going to have it lie across the bed with the flying geese at the head and foot. It's too long to lie the other way.

So much for quilt as you go! It's huge. I think I was nervous about the QAYG method. It's not something I have done before and I didn't want to spoil this quilt making a mess of it all. I am going to try that method but will start with something smaller and more experimental. So as I completed every part of this quilt I just kept sewing them together as that's what I am familiar with.

Because of this I've decided not to free motion quilt. It's just too large to manoeuvre through the machine when I'm not confident to begin with. I'm going to use my walking foot and straight line quilt. Like the QAYG I'm going to attempt FMQing with a smaller project. No need to make my life even more complicated. Quilting is supposed to be fun.