Conquering the Batik Monster

This was such a huge, and beautiful, quilt to quilt! It measures 103 x 103" and is a sample for the Lil' Red Hen Quilt Shop BOM called Moonlight Sonata. All batiks--but was very glad that the back was a "sueded" gray. Between the batik and all the many seams I struggled with shredding thread until I loosened the quilt on the frame quite a bit.

I used 4 different color threads--first a smoke monopoly (light gray So Fine in the bobbin) to stablize all the borders, blocks, etc. Then I used the light gray So Fine in both top and bobbin to do the individual blocks surrounding the large medalion block (also with it) and the gray/gray borders. Then a darker gray Glide to "McTavish" the darker grey triangles, followed by a marine blue So Fine in the darker colored stripe blocks, the corner blocks and the two blue borders. Whew, just describing all that wears me out! I'm just really glad that Jenny did the binding on this quilt--all 412" of it! She is about ready to hang it for the upcoming Heartland Quilt Shop Hop the first weekend of April.

Like many across the country, we are still having winter. While nothing like the NorthEast, we have a light glaze of ice tonight. Hoping that the forecasters are accurate and it ends early enough tonight to allow the quilt class to meet tomorrow--we are exploring applique techniques. With so many different ways to applique, I'm hoping we don't overwhelm these beginners. But they have hung in there so well over this past 4 weeks, I think they are totally unflappable (unless we have ice!).