February "12 Things" Challenge

I'm taking part in Judy Laquidara's "12 Things" Challenge this year since I don't have 12 UFOs to finish up.  For February, my challenge was to make a Thomas the train quilt, pixelated fashion, for JoJo, my 4th child.

My first challenges arrived when I discovered I had only one strip of solid white, not quite enough for this quilt.  Then, before the week was out, I ran out of black.

I strip pieced, pressed, sub-cut, organized rows, lined them up, sewed them together.  Rinse, wash, repeat for 91 rows.  Despite all my efforts to the contrary, I still have sections where the background sky and grass sections repeat.  The funniest part is, they don't repeat just once, but for several rows!

I had some train fabric I thought about using for the backing of this large, 70X91 top, but decided to use a more juvenile print of city transport.  I had plenty just by piecing two long strips together, so it was an easy prep.

I have rather a lot of thread in many colors, which served me well on this quilt.  It was pretty clear to me that one thread allover would not do.  Instead, I used 8 colors on top and a variegated blue on the bottom.

I did stitch-in-the-ditch around all of the black, and I thought I might give up before it was done.  After I'd exhausted one bobbin with SitD, I quilted some of the background sections, then went back it.  It took three different sessions of SitD, but I did finally finish it.

Now it's all washed and crinkly and on the bed, and I count it a lovely succes!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.