1/4-inch mania

Yesterday I wrote about starting the quilting on “Star Explosion” and I left you wondering if I was CRAZY enough to quilt 1/4-inch lines in the center background.

You all knew it…..the answer was YES!!!!!

Once the outside background was finished, I had to decide on the internal quilting. I knew that I wanted to stitch it “to death” so that the star would pop out more which meant 1/4-inch lines!!!

My biggest concern was which way the lines should run. I finally decided to draw “imaginary” lines at the four corners and the change direction in each quadrant.

As I quilted, I found that I needed a registration line to help me out…..

Once I had quilted along that line, I could easily use the ruler and the foot edge……

…..to quilt the next line……

For more information on this process of quilting 1/4-inch lines, check out this blog post…..

Quarter Inch Quilting made easy

I made a choice to NOT bury as many threads, but instead to travel between the lines. I figured since the travel portion was only 1/4-inch, it would not show as much!!

Interestingly, I found it harder to quilt the lines that were parallel as opposed to the ones that were running from point to point. Consequently, I drew a LOT more registration lines!!

I was thrilled to quilt the VERY last line and, after binding it, took it to the washing machine to get all of those blue lines out!!

When I laid it out to dry, my eye immediately went to this block…..

Now HOW did I miss that!!!!

It was quickly fixed……

I did play a bit of “thread-chicken” and was pleased to see a few yards left…..

By the way, I used two of these 225 yard spools, which means that there is over 450 yards of quilting in the background alone!!

I love the finished quilt…..

….and honestly enjoyed every step in its making.

I have trouble believing that I designed it from scratch!!!

It is now entered in the Modern Quilt Guild “Ruby & Bee” challenge……keep your fingers crossed for me!!!