Compass Quilt

Ever since we saw this Compass Quilt at Quilt Market, we’ve been dying to make one.  It’s been a couple of years since that Market, but we finally finished this after having the top pieced and in our ready-to-quilt pile for the last eight months! (Now if we could just finish the several others still in said pile. . .)

This isn’t a huge quilt, so we thought it would make a great wall hanging.  The hanging board was something we won from our local quilt shop, on the day about 5.5 years ago that Audrey was bitten by the quilting bug.  We’re so glad to finally put it to use!

We also figured that since this was a small quilt, it would be a great first run for our new quilting table.  Each of us now has a Wallaby II from Kangaroo Cabinets.  Happy Mother’s Day, Birthday, and Christmas to us!

All of the quilting is free motion, done with the Bernina Aurora 440 QE with the Bernina Stitch Regulator foot.  The BSR is really handy to use, although it’s not 100% perfect on keeping those stitches even.  We’ve noticed that when we start again after stopping, it sometimes has a hard time catching up.  But, it beats going without.

Using the quilting table was great for this quilt.  There was hardly any drag, and that was only when a corner of the quilt fell off a side.  Having the machine at table height was a huge help as well.

We did free motion straight lines in the star points, pebbles on the arrowheads and tails, and leaves around the letters, with a scallop all the way around.  The canvas applique adds a fun dimension and texture to the quilt.
For this quilt, we used basting spray, which we love, but we have decided that basting spray alone is not enough.  Things tend to still shift around during quilting, especially really small and intricate patterns.  We sort of saved this one by quilting the heck out of it.Next time, we’re planning to baste with spray, then add safety pins.  We should have also done basting quilting along the seams before doing the decorative quilting, but we really didn’t want to interrupt the border design.  All this to say, it ended up a little bit wavy, and that’s probably why.

Here’s a fun photo to show you where this lives in Audrey’s house above the stairs.

We also really love this hanging board, because we can easily switch out quilts without having to put new holes in the quilt, or the wall.  The jeweled knobs hold two boards together, and you just sandwich the quilt between the two boards and screw the knobs down to hold it in place.

We had a lot of fun with this quilt!  If you’d like to make one, we still have a couple of kits available to buy here: Moda Compass Quilt Kit.  Also, don’t forget to shop our Sample Sale, from now through 12/12/17!  We’re not sure if we’ll offer them after that time, so if there’s something you can’t live without, better snag it!  These would also make great gifts if you’ve run out of time for Christmas projects this year.