Old Dog #2

Adding another quilt today in the Old Dog: New Tricks Series. The original block, from my now de-constructed quilt, ended at the edge of the blue background and the bottom of the dog. I added a busy floral border and a simple cross-grain applied binding. To clarify, to make the binding I fold my fabric selvage edge to selvage edge. Then I slice the fabric as most of us do for patchwork shapes: perpendicular to the selvage edge. Each strip has the selvage edge on the short sides. I find cross-grain strips have just enough “give” for straight-sided quilts. They’re faster than cutting binding strips on the bias.

Trying new things with each of these little quilts is my goal.

This time out I quilted straight lines in the blue fabric using my walking foot. I don’t think I ever quilted concentric squares before. The lines are 1/2″ apart. Rather than marking lines, I moved my needle to the left and used the edge of my presser foot as a guide. Although I traveled “in the ditch” along the edge of the dog to get to the next quilting line, there were still plenty of starts and stops. Each pair of threads (beginning and ending) were hand finished. I threaded them onto a hand needle, wove them in between existing stitches, and then buried them in the batting.

I quilted around the spiral motifs in the green fabric (dog’s body) in pale green thread. It looks better from the front, but here’s a picture of the back where you can see the stitching more easily. Until I run out, all the quilts will have the paw print fabric as backing.

I quilted a string of circles in the border. I’m glad you can’t see them very well on the front. (Someone needs a little more practice.)

I traced a nickel and then attempted to free-motion quilt on the lines, making the circles in two passes. (One pass in violet, the other in teal in the photo below.) Like I said, I’ll do better with more practice.