Abacus Quilt in Progress

It is Wednesday once again, and once again I am thankful that we are on the down slope of the week. I feel the Holiday pressure already. How about you? I had intended to have my Abacus quilt quilted and at least ready to be binded by this past weekend, but you know how life goes. This quilt design was created by Christa from Christa Quilts for her Fall Quilt-a-Long, and I enjoyed every moment of it! It isn’t ever too late to join in on a Quilt-a-Long and I think this can be done in really some fun ways for a baby quilt!

***WARNING***

Photos are horrible, as I am disliking the daylight savings time. By the time I get home it is already dark and I keep forgetting to bring my items to work to take during the day with the beautiful backgrounds.

I do at least have all of the ‘blank’ circles done through quilting as well as some of the exterior quilting. You can clearly tell my circles are by far perfect, but that is ok. I am quilting with my new sewing machine and well, I am just not a fan of free motion quilting on a domestic machine. I believe you need a long arm for it (at least for me). I can’t seam to ‘draw’ when I move the ‘paper’ (fabric/quilt)… I need to draw by moving the ‘pen’ (needle). I am only doing what I am calling a “stipple loop” on the exterior. I am loving the way it is turning out overall, I just need to get it done. The original design has it straight and not ’tilted’. I decided to do this as I always love ‘twisting’ things up and because I wanted it a little bit bigger (for no real reason). It was not as challenging to add the slanted parts as I thought it would be; however I am pretty sure I did it slightly the longer way than what a more experienced quilter would have done… either way, it got the job done! 

I intend to do the binding in the same teal color as I want it to give the effect on the front of a floating Abacus. Also, I think it would be fun for some people thinking the blanket is off kilter when in reality it is not. I may or may not have already had this happen to me a few times when I am holding it up. hehehe

I chose this practically hot pink with small white polka-dots in it (once again, no real reason). It was more laziness as I was going through my stash of fabric and when I pulled this out, it was literally the perfect over-size needed for the quilting. So… to save myself either piecing a back or cutting into another large bundle of fabric, I just went with it. I’m most certainly not a pink person by any means, but I still like it. It looks like I haven’t quilting all of the blank circles yet, but the circles now being created are the two shadow curved lines that I am quilting in between each circle, so up close they are almost boxy-type circles because of how it is creating it. I think the back will be almost just as fun as the front!

I am linking up today with WIP Wednesday w/ Freshly Pieced and Lets Bee Social w/Sew Fresh Quilts. Join in on the party and show your stuff off!

Sew Stitching Cute