Quick Quilt Top – Half Triangle Square Block: Win our finished quilt

This is the third article in our 2024 Quick Quilt Top series. As part of this series, we created a quilt together – from picking a pattern and a quilting design. You can read previous installments at this link.

In part 1 of this series, I provided 10 quilt tops utilizing the One Block design and you got to vote for your favorite. The winner was #1, Overlapping Squares. To see all the layouts, click here.

Next, I provided 10 various quilting design choices and asked you to vote for your favorite. To see all the options, click here. With an overwhelming response, Design 4 – Feather Square – won.

In this third – and final – article, I’m pulling everything together and finishing the quilt. The best news – this quilt could be yours. Scroll to the bottom of this article to see how you can win this beautiful quilt!

Prepping the quilt

Making a plan before quilting is one of the most important steps in the quilting process. On this quilt, I paid close attention to the open seams. I’m not able to stitch in the ditch in the open seam areas.

Before loading the quilt top, I mark the lines so I can whip through and quilt it faster. No one likes to rip stitches, right?

When marking a quilt top, I prefer using water-soluble markers or white chalk (depending on fabric colors). Before you mark a quilt top, be sure to research and thoroughly test any marking tools before you begin marking designs on your quilt top!

Backing fabric

I chose Moda’s Basic Grey from its Grunge fabric line for our quilt. I needed to piece the backing fabric. To do this, I personally like to use a ½” seam allowance when pressing the seam open.

Choosing your thread

How to choose the right thread color for this quilt? When choosing a thread color for quilting, I like to lay out each potential color across the quilt top to see how each choice will show on the various colors of the quilt top. Which one would you choose? I’m showing monofilament, light grey, dark grey and ivory colors.

I chose Aurifill’s monofilament thread. We use this thread a lot in our store. I have tested a lot of brands over the years, this is by far my favorite invisible thread!

We will be using a light grey 60-weight pre-wound bobbin for our Overlapping Squares quilt.

The benefit of using invisible thread is that it will allow the quilting design to show but the thread will not show up. This can make quilting challenging at times. It is very thin and sometimes difficult to see, especially when trying to backtrack over a previously stitched line. Just remember to slow down when quilting with this type of thread!

Quilting the quilt

Now it’s time to load the quilt and sandwich it onto the frame. Because this is a smaller quilt, I decided to quilt on our new APQS Ellie on a Halo frame. It worked out nicely and Ellie was an excellent choice for finishing this quilt!

I am using a straight ¼” ruler and a ruler base to keep my straight lines straight. The ruler base extends the base of my longarm, allowing me to safely use rulers while quilting. I often use a ruler base when free-motion quilting, too. When I need to stitch over any of those fine lines, I can rest my hand on the fabric around the ruler base to help me maintain control when stitching over those tiny monofilament stitches for the feathers.

As I am moving through the quilt, I like to keep my printed design (or map) close by, to make sure my feathers are moving in the same direction as the design intended. No one likes to use the seam ripper!

Binding the quilt

I love the look of hand binding but I’m at an age where my hands don’t like hand binding anymore! Now, I bind all of my quilts by machine using a folded 2-1/2” binding. I first stitch the binding onto the back of the quilt using a scant ¼” and then press the binding over to the front, making sure my corner miters are crisp and clean.

When I machine stitch the front of the quilt’s binding, I match my top thread color to the binding fabric color and match my bobbin thread color to the quilt’s backing fabric.

On this particular quilt, I used the same dark grey thread color because the binding fabric is the same as the backing fabric. I slow my sewing machine motor speed down so I can focus on staying as close to the edge of the binding as possible (without biting into the binding on the back of the quilt).

To finish any quilt, I still hand stitch down the mitered corners. That’s the only hand stitching I do.

Want to win this lovely quilt?

Now for the best part. As promised, someone gets to win this quilt, along with some great goodies from APQS! To win this lap quilt, please comment on this Facebook post or this Instagram post by noon Central Time on Friday, April 12 and we will pick a winner at random and inform them via a Facebook or Instagram direct message. Good luck!