Pinstripes

Today my nephew, Russell, son of my husband's younger brother, graduated from college. It's so hard to believe that he and his older sister, Brianna, are both adults with this significant milestone behind them.

I reached out to Russell a few weeks ago to see if he would be interested in having a quilt to commemorate his achievement. I made one for his sister when she graduated, but I wasn't sure if he'd be interested. I was pleased to receive an immediate and enthusiast "yes" response from him.

So, I needed to figure out something fitting that I could complete in a relatively short time. I decided to upscale the block I made for Architected to an 8" block. Those went together really quickly. 

Once I had a finished quilt top, I started sketching to choose a quilting design. Below are some of the options I considered. Dry erase marker on clear plastic works so well for this process!

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I chose the overlapping circles, partially because I had quilted his sister's quilt with circles. I stitched using one of my circle rulers and went with Jamie Wallen's technique of triple-stitching in short sections as I went around the ruler. This made it much easier to keep from wandering. And, when I did wander, I simply got back on track and triple-stitched the beginning and end of the "wander". Then I could rip out those stray stitches without everything else coming undone. That saved me a lot of time. And the bolder look of the triple stitching looked great.

Batting: Hobbs wool
Quilting Thread:

• Glide No. 40 Trilobal Polyester in top and bobbin