Freemotion flannel quilt

Just had some ‘fun’ quilting this lap quilt for my bedroom chair. It is a companion to the quilt I made for my bed. The colors on the picture are not quite right – it is snowing here today – but you can get an idea.

I purposedly quilted it with a large motif: first, I wanted it to be really soft; second, I think it is easier to freemotion quilt a flannel top using a large, overall, design.  The word ‘easier’ is relative… I usually SITD when quilting flannel projects as I don’t want to risk a messy look. This time I was more daring…

I started with a quilting foot but quickly switched to the darning foot because of its smaller footprint. It glided over bulky seams without disrupting the stitch length.

The specs: Signature thread both on top and in the bobbin, Warm & Natural batting, with flannel backing (see it on bottom right of first picture). It measures 36″ x 56″ and was made using leftover half-square triangles from the bed quilt shown below. It will be perfect to cover my legs as I do handwork at night in my bedroom.

When it is time to quilt the king size top shown at right (I keep referring to it as ‘the beast’), I will definitely use the walking foot as I have done in the past, and will opt for simpler, perhaps straighter lines instead of curves.  I am still trying to gather courage to finish it – put together the backing, make the sandwich, pin the heck out of it…  For details about this pattern, see my previous post here, although I added the border before the red, outer border, to use some of the 280 half-square triangles I ended up with after making the quilt blocks.

I will always have the lap quilt on the leather chair when the flannel quilt is on the bed. My next pair of quilts for my bedroom will be made of cotton, though. No plans for it yet as ‘the beast’ needs to be quilted first. I need encouragement. Help, anyone???