Matchstick Quilting a Holiday Wreath

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Yes, I'm taking another Craftsy class. This time it is Creative Quilting with Your Walking Foot with Jacquie Gering. I have to admit that I was skeptical about this class. I have been quilting for a long time and I wondered how there could possibly be enough material about using your walking foot to fill an entire class. I'm only half way through the class and I'm learning a lot. As always, I like to apply my new found skills to a project as soon as possible.

This quilt top has been around for a few years now. It tends to get pulled out this time of year to be considered for finishing. I have another wreath like this made in wild, bright colors and it was finished with lots of free motion quilting. I wondered how it would look with just texture added to it by way of matchstick quilting.

I love this Sulky Blendable thread against the fabric, although I'm a little worried about having enough. We'll just have to find a creative solution if it runs out before I am finished.

Jacquie does a good job of talking about how to prepare your quilt for quilting. She emphasizes how important it is to make your quilt as smooth as possible before quilting. I'm not very good about that and she has planted a seed of thought with me to pay more attention to my preparation.

She uses painters tape a lot to establish a straight line as a starting point and then a second tape line as a registration line. Most quilters tend to wander a little bit left or right while stitching and the registration lines help keep that in check. The good news for my project is that since it is pieced blocks, I can use the seam line formed by the rows of blocks as both my starting point and registration lines. I did have to use tape to keep things straight into the border.

I started quilting by stitching in the ditch of every row. Then I came back and stitched a line 1/4" from the first line. I had intended to keep going back and adding another stitching line to each set keeping them 1/4" apart, but of course I grew impatient. I wanted to see how that texture was going to look. So, I finished out one of the sets of stitching lines near the middle.

There are six rows of blocks on this quilt and I was able to get four rows completely quilted. It takes a long time to stitch all those neat little rows.

It is even pretty up close.

I decided it was all or nothing on the matchstick quilting. It runs from edge to edge. The borders get the same texture as the middle of the quilt. Now, I'm not quite sure what the technical definition for matchstick quilting is. If I was hardcore, I'd probably go back and stitch another line between each of these stitched lines. Right now, they sit at 1/4" apart and I think that is dense enough for me.

Even though there is still some quilting to go, I can tell the results of this quilting are going to be beautiful.

I highly recommend that you take this class. You will love it.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.