Endless Chain Quilt Finished and Gifted!
 

I learned last year while finding myself homeschooling our then 3 and 5 year olds that while I normally love to read, it was too difficult for me to do that while helping them with schoolwork. I needed something that I could easily start and stop and didn't require a whole lot of thinking from me. Luckily, when my husband had some vacation in December, we set up a little sewing station for me in the space where we do "school" and when we came back from Winter Break, away I went!

I pulled out a project I had already printed, cut, and sewn a couple blocks and then put away. Endless Chain by Marcia Hohn (QuiltersCache) is easy peasy straight line paper pieced sewing. Super easy to sew - literally straight lines, and quite fuss-free to put together. I think auditioning borders was the hardest part!

It was going to a friend/coworker who had just gotten surprise married. Friend and I play professionally together in an orchestra so I added some clefs in the vertical diamonds and some words in the horizontal diamonds. I've been an avid fan of Angela Walters' videos (Midnight Quilter and MQS, anyone?) so her dot to dot technique was absolutely perfect in this quilt. She also did a Dot to Dot FMQ challenge series on YouTube a couple years ago which was where I got the idea for the border and I love it because it perfectly mimics the design from inside the stars. All I had to do was draw a few reference dots for myself since I quickly found that I was really bad at lining up the center point of the angle. I do my quilting now on a 7700 so I think it's a little harder to see those things vs working on a longarm.

Friend and his new wife have decided to hang it on a wall! Funny - my brother does that too with his wedding quilt. It's not up to me what they do with it but as long as they're happy, I'm happy :)

Thanks for looking!

WOW, that is a beautiful quilt.

That is so pretty. I would love to look at it on my wall.

Well, it is a piece of art! Wall art for awhile. Lovely quilt!

It's a beautiful quilt and a lovely idea.

I love this look with all the shadings of color! Is the background gray? You know how colors look different on pc or phones. I think your quilting is art worthy. I also notice the music notes even before I read your post. What instrument do you play?

What a beautiful gift, and what a compliment that they have hung it on their wall! :) Very pretty quilt and I love the quilting, too. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/heart.gif

Yes, the background is gray. It's Bella solid in Silver. I really love how some of the blues just pop against the gray. When I first cut this quilt out a few years ago, I honestly thought this was going to be a meh practice quilt where I learned how to paper piece and as I got closer to finishing it, I started to love it so much I had some heart hurt about giving it away!

Thank you all for your kind words :)

I play flute and piccolo professionally and my friend is the tuba player in one of the orchestras I play in.

What a pretty quilt, the color choices are wonderful. Good job on finishing a UFO!

Wow- it’s gorgeous. Fabulous design and quilting,

Rob

What a perfect gift for your friend. It would have been difficult to part with, but knowing it was so appreciated, makes it easier.
Your quilting was perfect and really make the quilt shine.

Excellent work!

Very pretty! Your colors are perfect and your quilting is awesome!

Gorgeous quilt

Thanks for posting great photos of your quilt! I like that you say the pattern is Easy peasy. Its obvious your quilt has a good home and is appreciated for all the time and love you put into making it. It is extra special that you customized it with your quilting words and music designs. Any advice on what kind of paper you used to paper piece? I have not done this before but would love to try a block. Thank you!

That is really a stunning quilt! Your quilting is excellent as well. Glad the recipient is thoroughly enjoying the quilt.

What a great gift. Your quilt,, quilting and colors are beautiful.

Love the colors. You say it was easy peasy but it certainly looks complex. Lovely.

What a fantastic quilt. Awesome gift!

That's gorgeous~ It doesn't look simple but I'd love to try it.

Your use of fabrics and color is gorgeous - and the quilting!! Wow, amazing!

This quilt is so so pretty. I love the treble and bass clefs they add a very special element to the quilt. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you all for your kind words. I appreciate it!

I know many of you love the piecing part but honestly, the quilting part is my favorite part! Unfortunately, by the time I get there, I'm usually so tired of working on the project that all my grand plans to execute a great design are usually stifled by the pressure to finish. I made myself double down and work extra hard to finish this one in time and I'm glad I did!

I used 8.5 x 11in newsprint. You can buy this by the ream and it generally runs through my Brother laser printer just fine if I don't try to do too many sheets, it's the only paper in the tray, and I set the software setting to something like "recycled paper" instead of regular copy paper so it feeds a little better. Once in awhile it gets jammed but it wasn't too terrible. When I bought it a few years ago, I was able to get it for about $4 per ream but it seems to be a little more expensive now. Still cheaper than the foundation paper piecing paper they market to quilters Here's a link to what I have:

Newsprint on Amazon

A couple things I learned about this pattern: the centers of the blocks are quite bulky. Pressing open was definitely the way to go when joining blocks and it was still kind of a hard lump so I avoided quilting directly over those joins. Some of the other joins were also still kind of bulky so just be careful if you're quilting directly over them.

I mark with Crayola Ultra Clean Washable Markers and every mark washed out perfectly. I traced the clef designs because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them consistent without marking them but I only marked reference dots for all the dot to dot quilting. I didn't mark the words and perhaps I should have because my spacing wasn't always awesome.

What a beautiful quilt!

Such a sweet gift from the heart! Love everything about your quilt.

Very pretty and you did an awesome job and your quilting is great.

This is so beautiful!!! I love the gradation of colors you created across the quilt. And the quilting is marvelous with the musical notation. What a special gift!

That’s a beauty! I love your colors and quilting.

It is a work of art and love. I gave away a quilt I loved too and it hurts a little until you see the response and know you did the right thing!

Ohhhhh my this is beautiful! Excellent colors, so happy and modern.

Very pretty quilt.