Chicopee Churn Dash

Some quilts are special. This one is - I made it just for fun, in colors and pattern that appeal to me personally, and finished it while listening to a really great book.

The whole thing was nicely indulgent. Now I'm not sure what to do with it. But I trust there will be a chance to gift or sell the quilt before too terribly long.

Anyways, it's soft and scrumptious. Instead of machine quilting, I hand tied the thing all over with pearl cotton size 8 thread. I followed Denyse Schmidt's lead (see her version in Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration) tying it rather densely with 320 ties in all for this throw quilt. And each "tie" actually has 3 knots, so that's over one thousand ties. Slow, but altogether enjoyable.

You see, I had backed the quilt in Chicopee Corduroy (see previous gushings on this sumptous fabric). The corduroy feels more like flannel - so, so cozy - and gives the quilt extra weight. Hand tying it made me fully aware of the intense softness of these quilting cottons and the delicious puff of it's quilted form.

I'm a fan of tying now. I just love how it leaves a quilt flat, yet still textured. I know those are kind of opposites, but still, it's true. Also, I never get that panicky, I-might-ruin-this-now feeling when I tie a quilt. I'll keep facing that fear at the sewing machine, but a break now and then can't be a bad thing.

As far as design, this Scattered Value layout is so easy to affect. The sparse sprinkling of light churn dash blocks satisfies.

I love how in this bright spot the light value script fabric fairly disappears while the glowing teal pastry voile fabric sings out vibrantly. And the leaves! Did you notice the leaves?