Double Churn Dash Finish

A few weeks ago as I entered our township library, someone was plopping a stack of quilt magazines in the exchange bin (think little free library for magazines). I did a quick page-through, and my eye was caught by a quilt in the American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine of August 2019. I don't often make quilts from magazines, but I knew I had to make this one: Dashing Duos by Melissa Corry. The quilt was a little bigger than I needed, so I scaled it down and simplified some of the patches. I couldn't remember the original name as I was working, so I now present to you my version: Double Churn Dash.

The white background and black and white sashing and binding were what drew me to this quilt. 

I had lots of colorful fabrics on hand--a bit brighter than the ones in the magazine quilt, but that's okay. First I went through them using paper versions of the block parts to determine which pieces were big enough to use.

Then I paired up my favorites.

Cutting and sewing were pretty straightforward--some strip piecing, some half square triangles, and squares. I simplified the white areas using one large square instead of three smaller ones and a modified "sew and flip" corner instead of a HST. I used that method rather than a "sew and flip" square because I didn't have enough of the black and white floral fabric to waste on the corners. I've used this technique before: I measured out where the seam needed to be then laid a ruler marked with masking tape on the white square a 1/4 inch closer to the corner.

I pinned a triangle against it, sewed the seam and flipped to the corner. (My presser foot makes a nice scant 1/4 inch seam if I sew this sort of backwards way.)

After I sewed my blocks, I found myself wondering if I'd like an alternate layout more, with five large white squares instead of four. I tried it out.

Then laid them out in as in the original plan. 

How about those feet?

I waffled and spent way too much time trying to figure out which I liked more. I also laid out the sashing with both plans. 

And I kept rearranging the blocks to get a nice distribution of color and value. I got tired of moving blocks, so I printed photos and cut them apart to rearrange on paper. 

Much easier for all my dithering. I consulted with my Quilt Advisor and my daughter. Both liked the original plan, but QA advised maybe make another quilt in the alternate layout. What an enabler! Maybe I will?

I also needed to make a decision about how I wanted the cornerstones to look. Like this? 

Or this? 

You know by now what I chose. What I had really wanted was stripes like in the magazine quilt, but the only ones in my bins were 1/4 inch wide--too big for my scaled down cornerstones. But this works fine.

I quilted with a meander--quick with lots of texture because I wanted to get this done this month. (May's going to be a busy one for our family.) Well, quilting was not as quick as I'd like because I accidentally sewed the edge of the backing underneath the quilt. TWICE!! 

My excuse is that I was distracted by falling tree limbs--our trees were getting a major (almost-30-year) haircut, and I kept jumping up to see if there would be any tree left.

But once that was done, I could relax to hand sew the binding. I really like the light white and black binding in the magazine quilt. I didn't see anything suitable when I bought my backing (isn't it pretty?), so I cobbled together bits and pieces from my scraps--some dots, ovals, music notes, and a tiny bit of the floral leftover from the quilt top. Some are a bit vanilla, but they worked fine.

Here's the back on the garage. 

So soft, and the colors are perfect with the front. I bought it full price, but that's okay. It supported my favorite local shop, and the rest of the quilt cost me nothing new. (When I went to buy the white background and black/white cornerstone fabrics at a different store, I discovered that I had accumulated a nice bit of fabric cashback over several years through their punchcard reward, so they were free--and I still have some cashback leftover. Whoopee!)

So, a few more views while I show the stats. (I did not take the quilt on location because it's mud and grunge season here.)

Pattern: Dashing Duos by Melissa Corry

Fabrics: a variety from my stash with new background, backing and cornerstones.

Do you see my initials at the bottom and date up the side?

Dimensions: 54 inches square pieced; 52 1/2 inches square quilted; 49 3/4 inches square washed. I downsized the blocks from 15 inches to 11 1/4 inches finished and the sashing from 2 inches to 1 1/2 inches wide finished.

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Superior Masterpice in Granite for piecing; King Tut in Temple for quilting; Treasure in Old Lace for hand sewing.

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer 115 treadle for quilting and sewing first seam of binding.

This is probably the closest to the colors; outside light was a bit harsh. The white is a true white, though. Tough quilt to photograph to get the right color saturation.

This quilt will be donated to a postpartum therapy program to bring comfort and a cozy hug for someone during sessions.

Washed and cozy

I'm linking up with Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl for Favorite Finish. You have no idea how I hurried to meet the posting deadline. Sometimes that's needed to get something done. I'm glad to have had a wonderful sewing month--it's a good antidote to grief and anxiety about all sorts of existential and social threats. And believe it or not this isn't the only project I did during April. I made a couple of fun mini projects. I'll try to get them written up and posted this weekend. I hope you have had a good sewing month and have a favorite finish to celebrate, too.

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked, not officially promoting anything.)