KatyQuilts

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to quilt this top with a close “organic” grid. I have done this on a number of other quilts and really love the overall effect. It gives lots of texture without taking away from the design.

I’ve had lots of questions on this technique in the past, so I thought I would show you how I do this. I do not use rulers or channel locks. I really don’t mark. I look at my pieced top and figure out a starting place that will give me a guideline to star. In this case, I lined up the edge of my foot with the bottom seam of the blocks and started quilting one line in each row within my current quilting area. Like this:

I did make a few tick marks when I first started, just to get an idea of the spacing I wanted. Mostly, I am looking to decide how many rows of lines I want per block. I decided on 5 rows.

Once I had the first lines at the bottom of the geese done, I went back and did one line in the middle of each block and one line just below the bottom seam of the geese.

Then I filled in one row between each line. Working in this fashion, continually dividing the areas up, results in even texture across the surface. When I got to the point shown in the next photo, it was time to advance the quilt and start the process over again.

Of course, when I got to the end, I was really only half done! I took the quilt off the frame, turned it 90 degrees, and reloaded it so I could quilt the lines in the opposite direction.

This isn’t a fast way to quilt, but that glorious texture makes it worth it! I’ll share this as a finish on Friday.

I also finished step one of the Military Mystery. My die cutter sure came in handy for slicing up those strip sets!

Have a great day!

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts, Quilt Fabrication