THE SPECTRUM QUILT ❤️

This gorgeous Spectrum Quilt is designed by Alison Glass and it's one of my fav❤️rite quilts.  The colors are vibrant and the combination of batik and chambray fabrics give it a richness to its feel.  

I had wanted to purchase this as a kit but Alison no longer had any left on her site, she only had the pattern for sale.  I wrote her and she was kind enough to cut yardage from her Handcrafted Patchwork line for me from her shop.  I find that quilters are always the kindest of people! Then I was able to find the Andover Chambray fabric from various online sources to replicate the original quilt that she had made.  

I intended on making a queen size quilt but directly after ordering the pattern and fabrics I purchased my very own BERNINA Q24 longarm. At first, I was going to get a 12 foot longarm but then I decided to get a 9 foot.  The upside to getting a 9 foot was that the longarm fit into our room without cutting out the wall.  The downside was that I can't fit a queen size quilt onto a 9 foot frame.  I was able to cut this quilt down to a throw size but I still waited to put it on the longarm until I had some practice under my belt because I really loved this quilt and I wanted to gift it to my son and his wife for Christmas.

For the queen size quilt I had ordered 3/4 yardage of each of the fabrics but for the throw I only needed 1/2 yard cuts.  This meant I had extra fabric but it turned out to be a good thing because instead of just cutting out squares and then dividing them in fourths to make the triangles I was able to make a triangle template and fussy cut each triangle separately and get a much cooler look!  Most of the fabrics have huge vibrant designs on them and fussy cutting them was fun. If you're reading this and you're not a quilter, fussy cutting just means that you take your template and put it exactly over the part of the design that you want to cut out instead of getting the random parts and pieces that you would get if you just cut your square into triangles.  

I prewashed my fabrics.  First I tested all the batik fabric by rubbing the corner of each color with a white cloth dipped in hot water.  If the fabric had transferred color to this cloth I would have pretreated it with Retayne.  None of the colors rubbed off of the fabric so I washed all the batik fabrics in Synthrapol.  Using Synthrapol removes the extra wax and dye from the fabric.  I used a delicate cycle on warm and then put them in the dryer on a low temperature and took them out while still damp and hung them up to dry.  Then I ironed them and used Best Press to give them back their shape and feel.  If you have precut strips or squares you have to skip the prewashing step because the fabric will shrink too much and you might not have the amount that you need for your pattern.  Ask me how I know this?  

Stitching the quilt top was a dream.  Have you ever worked with chambray before?  I love, love chambray!  Not only is it a joy to work with but it has a very masculine feel and look to it.  I felt like with the chambray and the batik together that the look of the quilt worked well for both my son and his wife.

The pieced top laying on the loft floor in the sun.

Next I loaded it onto the longarm.  My favOrite part!  I used ruler work for the entire quilt.  I loaded it with the sashings going horizontal so that it would be easier to quilt each sashing in one pass.  I also cut my backing so that the seam down the middle would load horizontal.  

I used three different threads to stitch this quilt with.  First I used Superior Threads MicroQuilter thread #7007 in Silver.  It's a 100 weight thread so that when you stitch across multiple colors the silver actually reflects those colors and blends in.  It doesn't quite blend in as much on the darkest colors but it works pretty well.  The only problem with a 100 weight thread is that you don't see the quilting as much.  With this quilt, however,  that wasn't a problem because I wanted the vibrant color patchwork to be the star and not the quilting. In the sashing though, I used a 40 weight Isacord thread in Light Sage.  This gave the plain sashing some character because the quilting stands out with a 40 weight. In the bobbin I used Superior Threads Bottom Line which is a 60 weight and is designed for use in the bobbin and pairs well with the MicroQuilter thread.  

Threaded through the first and second normal guides
and then through the back guide on the other side.

My problem with the Bottom Line thread was getting it wound onto a bobbin.  No matter what speed I tried the bobbin was loose and mushy. It wouldn't even register on the TOWA gage.  I've read about this same problem on my FaceBook longarm group but no one had any solutions for it.  I finally ran the thread through a third thread guide and it came out much better. I think doing this just gave the thread more tension as it loaded onto the bobbin.

My favorite part of having a quilt loaded on the frame
is when the backing starts to show on the take up bar.

I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting.  This batting is made from a blend of bamboo, silk and cotton. The Orient batting makes the quilt so soft and pliable.  It's my favorite batting so far for quilts that will actually be used to snuggle up with.  It reminds me of my Grandma's quilts because she used flannel instead of batting in hers and that's how they feel.

This is my favorite quilt so far!  I just fell in love with the colors when I first saw it on Alison Glass's website.  I knew then that I wanted to make it for my son and his wife.  Here are some pictures of the quilt being enjoyed on Christmas Day! 

Merry Christmas!  And remember to pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️