Chocolat Quilt Completed

I started this quilt top back in November using my Grandmother’s Singer 99K sewing machine. This project served a few purposes for me.

Firstly, it was a project to use up some of the fabric I had laying around. It is interesting how our tastes change. I bought this fat quarter bundle when it first came out because I loved the warm rich palette, especially red, blues and browns. Now I am leaning much more towards modern solids and cooler tones.

Secondly, this quilt top let me play on the vintage machine. The piecing was straightforward and allowed me to get a feel for the old world sewing machine. It made me realise that I love my newer Bernina and even though it is not without it’s quirks, it sews beautifully. Especially over thicker pieces of fabric.

Lastly, I wanted a few different quilt tops to quilt in different ways as examples for this website. Believe it or not, this would be classed as a freehand all over.

This quilt looks like it was custom quilted, because the quilting is done in line with the piecing , but because there is no ruler work (stitch-in-the-ditch) that is more time consuming, it is not technically custom quilted. All of the quilting was hand-guided and goes perfectly well with the patchwork design. The cost to quilt a freehand all-over is lower than custom, but the look is really similar to custom.

To be honest, I felt quite ‘meh’ about this quilt when I finished the top. I also had a lot of indecision about what / how to quilt it. Now that it is done, I actually quite like it because the texture it has compliments the pieced design and makes it feel snuggly and warm. I used Matilda’s Own 100% wool batting in this quilt and it has a lovely loft to it.