Lucky Strikes quilt: A finish!

Sorry for the relative lack of sewing posts over the past few weeks, but all my time and energy was going into a secret project. Thankfully, I can finally reveal my finished Lucky Strikes quilt!

The quilt was a wedding gift for my little sister, a champion bowler, so Kim Kight's Lucky Strikes fabric collection and quilt pattern were the perfect fit.

I chose to focus on some of the brighter colors in the collection (avoiding the more 70s-inspired colors) and supplemented with some of the new Sprinkle fabrics from Cotton + Steel (in Kimberly Blue and Petal). I love the low-volume scorecard print, which forms the background of most of the quilt top. I brought in more coordinating fabrics from my stash for the single striped "lane" and the quilt back.

As usual, I debated for a long time on how to quilt this one. I originally wanted to try some free-motion quilting again, but after practicing my intended design for a while, it just wasn't looking the way I wanted, and since I was short on time, I decided to go a more comfortable route. Using the strike Xs as my inspiration, I went with a randomly spaced diagonal crosshatch pattern. The lines range from two to five inches apart, and I quilted it in white thread using my walking foot.

I machine bound the quilt using my normal method (attach the binding to the front of the quilt first, wrap it around to the back and secure it with clips, then stitch in the ditch next to the binding on the front, which will catch the binding on the back). I made sure to include one of my labels, too. The binding is Dear Stella Confetti Dots in Baltic.

Because the quilt was so last minute, I didn't get a chance to take pictures until we got to Dallas for the wedding (which also explains why the quilt is so wrinkled in these shots, oops). My sister lives right by the lake, so I wanted to try to get some shots there, but we couldn't ever time the lighting just right, and the wind was not on our side. It did make for some funny outtakes, though.

The most time consuming part of the quilt was cutting, starching, and appliquing all those circles, which seemed to take forever (though I did finally manage to finish watching Wolf Hall while I did it, so there's that). The starch was definitely key to getting round circles that would stay in place, so I'm happy to have discovered a new technique. My sister was thrilled with the quilt, so I guess all those circles were worth it. :)