Just in Time

This quilt was a long time in the making. I fell in love with Leila's quilt when I first saw it on her blog in June of 2011. I knew I wanted to make a x and plus quilt but didn't have enough scraps at the time.
When it was my month in January 2012 to choose a block and send out fabric to my New Bee on the Block bee mates I asked them to make the x and plus block. 

I also joined a few swaps for these blocks and received a total of 30 more blocks in two separate swaps.

Then all the blocks sat in a box until the x and plus along started up on Instagram last month. It was just the incentive I needed to make another 30 blocks and get this quilt finished.

I added a thin red border and then a wider black border (thanks Katy for your suggestions) to get the quilt up to the size I wanted and give all these blocks a nice frame.

Next I backed it with what I think is the perfect fabric, seeing that these blocks came from all different postmarks in the world. It's called Postmarks and it is part of the Air Mail 1930's collection by Karen Roti for Clothworks. You can find it at Fabric.com and on Etsy from several different shops.

This quilt will be going to the Sew South Retreat with me this week. I am going to wrap it around my sewing machine and put it in my carry-on luggage. Hopefully it will keep the old Bernina safe as we travel and keep me warm and cozy in the hotel.

I quilted it with a serpentine stitch going through each plus row and then with a straight line of quilting on either side of each seam where the blocks were joined, both vertically and horizontally. I attempted to quilt it with Aurifil 40 wt. thread, but after several thread breaks and not even 1/4 of the quilt done, I switched to 50 wt. thread and had no more problems.

The final touch was the Lecien black and white stripe for the binding.

This is my fifth quilt finish of the year. Too bad it's not on my Finish-Along list. I need to get working on that list when I return from retreat.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Scrappy X and Plus Quilt

Fabric: Scraps from me, swaps and bee mates

Backing: Postmarks by Karen Roti for Clothworks

Binding: Lecien Black and White stripe

Quilted by: Me, with straight lines and Serpentine stitch using a walking foot

Thread: Pieced  with Aurifil 50 wt. (and whatever the others used)

Batting: Warm and White

Quilted with Auriful 40 wt. thread color 2000 and 50 wt. thread color 2310

Size: 68.5"x 83.5"