Finished! -- EQ7 Scrap Challenge Quilt

Whew! I worked like mad over the weekend and managed to get this quilt finished & submitted by noon on Sunday, 12 whole hours before the expiration/final deadline to submit! Yay!! There weren't many entries, so maybe I have a decent shot at a prize....we shall see. Either way, my game room now has this adorable table topper, and I'm going to move all my fabric mug rugs/coasters down to a napkin older on the bar, so that we can grab one as needed.

The single table topper on the game room table will protect the table better, and make it easier to clear off when the boys want to play a game; just move the one big thing off, play the game, and put the one big thing back when done, versus them scooting the coasters around, tossing them on the floor, etc. It looks so much neater this way; I'm glad this challenge came along, as it's not something I would have thought up on my own, but sure was fun & perfect for that little table.

So...pictures! I didn't take very many progress photos, because I really didn't have time to stop and photograph; I was just sewing like mad.

Once I got the top pieced (finished that on Thursday), I started quilting. I knew right away what I wanted to do in the blue rows, so started there while I pondered what to do in the orange diamonds and the white & gray sections.

For the blue rows, I did closely spaced lines in the light blue ribbons, and then inside outlined (reverse echo) the dark blue & black arrows. I wanted the arrows to pop, and felt light quilting inside of dense quilting would help accomplish that.

all the blue ribbons are quilted

To simplify things, I did one continuous line, just stopping and pivoting the quilt then going back the other direction. Over and over and over again, inside each section of ribbon. This method took me just at 30 minutes per full blue row (it helps that the whole quilt measures only 30" x 30"). This much turning, though, meant I mainly sewed in one-hour blocks; all of that turning and guiding was rough on my shoulder, so I would sew two rows and take a break, which is why it took me all weekend. Remember, I'm sewing on a small Janome Magnolia 7318, not a long arm or anything like that. 

close up of the quilting so far....

Here's a peak a the game room; we've been in this house for almost a year, and just finally this weekend put together that cute little shelf in the corner; until now, all the games, puzzles, etc, were just stacked in the corners. Very cluttered, very messy, very unappealing. The new clean & organized shelf, and the now uncluttered table (seen below with the topper on it), make me very very happy.

the game room

table topper, on the table

So...what did I decide to do in the other spaces...? In the gray background "diamonds" (that seem to tuck behind the light blue ribbons...), I did the same straight line quilting, following the outside edge, so that the lines in each quadrant are diagonal, thus enhancing the idea of those gray units being a large diamond tucked under the ribbons. 

In the orange diamonds inside the gray I chose to reverse echo each triangle, so there are 4 little triangles quilted into each of these diamonds. The quilting on this part (the gray section & the orange inside each one) took me 20 minutes per section, so another two hours of quilting here....now we're up to 4.5 hours total quilting time. 

The remaining parts went faster. On the orange diamonds in the white, I wanted to reverse things; I didn't want dense quilting next to dense quilting; I wanted the white to stand out from the gray. So, I chose to outline the white, following the same lines as I had in the gray, but with only one line reverse echoed inside each white section. Then, to differentiate the orange diamonds in those rows, I did a concentric square/spiral square inside each one, starting in the center and following the lines of the shape of the diamond/square. This part also took me about 20 minutes per vertical row, due to all the turning inside those orange diamonds. 

"Your Turn" 30" x 30" scrappy table topper
Quilt stats: 5 white fabrics, 7 light blue fabrics, 2 black fabrics, 3 gray fabrics & 6 orange fabrics used
only 1 dark blue fabric, and a single fabric for the binding
Entered in Electric Quilt Company's Spring Fling Scrap Challenge
machine pieced & quilted on Janome Magnolia domestic machine

To finish up I did the very edges; I quilted each edge piece as though it were a cut-off middle piece. Then I trimmed the quilt, sewed my binding together & sewed it on; machine sewn to the front, folded over and hand sewn onto the back. Finished & uploaded right around noon on Sunday (we were stuck home from church due to some flooding in our area). 

Fingers crossed that my quilt wins a prize, but if not, at least the game room looks great now!