Flannel Lap Quilt - Report

For Christmas I made David a flannel lap quilt,  The pattern I chose, "Take Five" was a good one for flannel because it consisted of squares and rectangles with nary a triangle in sight.  Now those who know me will probably be wondering already, "Noel made a simple quilt with squares and triangles only?  Okay, what'd she change?"

I changed the pattern, but only a little.  I added a star block ("Payton's Star - the one I used as my label for "Music of the Night") because over the course of the contest, David patience and considerable help and moral support certainly made him a star.  Oh, and I sprinkled some stars around, too.  Eight, I think. 

The top was finished in time for Christmas so I was able to wrap it up and give it to him without worrying about pins or loose blocks.  Of course, it wasn't completely finished.  Now I am working on the quilting, and this is why I brought up this subject again.

Flannel can be very heavy especially if you add batting and backing as for a traditional quilt.  There's also the problem of quilting.  If a piece is quilted it becomes stiffer, and it doesn't wrap satisfactorily until it's quite old.  I wanted this lap quilt (as opposed to the baseball-themed one I made for him about three years ago) to be something he could curl up in.  I decided I'd use the different but still traditional method of tying the quilt.  It's not something I've ever done, but it isn't difficult.  However, I've had mixed success with tying embroidery thread which I planned to use.

Eventually I decided to use the wonderful embroidery stitches on my sewing machine.  Last weekend I pinned the backing (a beautiful batik) to the flannel top (still no batting - too weighty as I mentioned), and this week I started sewing.  Yesterday was the third day of stitching on the seams around every block using a variegated thread and different embroidery stitches.  I have the outer round of blocks, and the two borders to go.  If I can spend a good portion of a day on it, it should take only one more.

I think I'm going to like it quite a bit when it's finished.  I'll let you know how David feels about it.