economy block quilt {all finished}
all. done. !!!
I'm so, so very over the moon happy to have my Economy Block quilt all finished. And it turned out just the way I imagined, yay!
I worked on these blocks over the last two weeks, taking my time to fussy cut tons of favorite prints, using lots of scraps as well as digging through my stash.
I used Rita's tutorial to make these blocks. I made 196 of them and they each measure 5.5" unfinished. I love how Rita's way of making the blocks just a bit larger and then trimming them to the right size made for absolutely perfect blocks. And I ended up with really "pretty trash" after each sewing session :)
I knew right from the beginning I wanted to use minky for the backing. It makes for such wonderfully soft and cuddly quilt. It doesn't quilt that easily, though. Especially when it's as big as this guy is.
I went with straight line quilting about 1.5" apart using three different colors of thread (I copied this idea from Jolene's amazing basket quilt). The first few lines went pretty smoothly, but the more I quilted the more minky started shifting and giving me trouble. So, I ripped out a few rows of quilting, turned the quilt upside down and quilted it minky side up and all the problems were resolved, no more puckers or pulling. Phew!
Finished size of this quilt is 70" x 70" and with all those gazillion seams and minky backing it's quite a heavy, very warm quilt. Just perfect for these freezing cold temperatures we've been experiencing lately.
Plus, it will be perfect for an I Spy game or two :) My favorite.