I started this quilt back in 2017. It was a challenge to myself to sew improv, which I had not ever really done before. I had made one baby quilt with wonky log cabins, sort of improv, but that’s the closest I had come.
I wanted to make several classic blocks in an improv style. I chose simple quilt shapes like HSTs and squares to form stars, churndash, and other common quilt block shapes. I limited my fabrics to low volume backgrounds and bright, high contrast colors.
Making the blocks was fun and quick. It was a nice project to test out a new to me skill. I even enjoyed piecing the quilt top together. But then I had the genius idea to hand quilt the entire (throw size) thing! What I realized in the process is that I love hand quilting, but I don’t love hand quilting an entire large quilt with a bold cogs and gears design. So I put it away for nearly 2 years.
I knew I needed to dig it back out and finish the quilting. Lucky for me we live in a super dry climate so most of my water soluble marking were still present. I chose to finish out a couple more gears to balance the pattern and then I switched over to 2″ horizontal straight lines. This was the best decision I made. The quilting is done, it’s extra crinkly from the big stitches, and best of all I no longer have it on my UFO list!
Check out more of my progress from the very beginning by searching my hashtag #loewenimprovquilt on Instagram.