Xs and pluses

I finally finished my xplusquilt and decided to do without borders. This was part of the x and + along on Flickr. When I first came across it in January I was intrigued, but hesitant about joining (I was in the middle of finishing a pile of UFOs after all...). Being able to use all those fabulous text fabrics I had been stashing was what won me over in the end, but I decided to keep it small - 25 blocks  at 7 1/2" makes a nice little wall quilt that I could hope to finish in a not too distant future.

I chose text fabric for the pluses and I finally managed to cut into a stack of Kaffe Fassett polka dot squares. The rest of the fabric is from my scrap pile. I planned the colour combinations and prepared all the fabric before I started sewing assembly line style, as that is the system that works best for me. If I were to do the blocks one by one from start to finish this would have taken forever!

I know I have said before that I would stay away from straight line quilting, as I can't sew I straight line to save my life, but after a lot of mulling over this quilt I decided that straight lines was just what the doctor ordered. I followed the seam lines in the blocks and added lines inbetween later, making a pattern of three lines close together, a sligthly wider gap and then another group of three. At a distance this isn't so noticeable, you just get an impression of lines all over and they even look kind of straight...

I used part of a duvet cover from Ikea for the back as you can't get enough letters on a quilt ;-) It works fairly well for a wall quilt, but as a duvet cover or backing for a lap quilt it seems rather loosely woven, I think. The binding is a Dear Stella stripe with little blocks of black inbetween the stripes here and there. It helps bring the whole thing together nicely, I think.