Fableism Everyday Chambray Geo Gems Quilt

December 14, 2023

Today I’m sharing one of the quilts I hand quilted recently! This is the Fableism Everyday Chambray Geo Gems quilt. This Geo Gems is made using these super soft chambrays and then hand quilted. It is one of the softest quilts I have ever made.

The Geo Gems quilt pattern is in the Quilty Love pattern Shop. I sometimes have Everyday Chambray bundles also in the shop. Or you can find them here.

Geo Gems Everyday Chambray quilt

When I first started planning out this Geo Gems quilt I was going to do a mix of the Fableism Camp Ginghams with the Pastel Everyday Chambray. I made up a couple of blocks but I just wasn’t loving it. So I scrapped that idea and grabbed another Everyday Chambray bundle and went with an all solids quilt. This quilt needs two fat quarter bundles. I don’t think you use every single fat quarter but one bundle won’t be enough.

So now I have a lot of that Camp Gingham fabric cut up and need to find a new project for it. I think I have something that will work.

Fableism Everyday Chambray Fabric

If you have been following along on Instagram or get my weekly newsletter then you probably already know that I’m kind of obsessed with all of the Fableism Wovens. Why?? Because they are so so soft and the colors and textures do something for me…haha.

It’s a looser weave woven so it is a little more finicky to sew with and has its challenges. But I don’t mind and find it all worth it for a little extra texture and a whole lot of softness.

Here are some of my tips when working with this looser weave woven fabric:

Pre Wash. This is the only fabric I pre-wash these days only because it shrinks significantly more than a regular quilting cotton. So pre-wash it to pre-shrink it. Just keep in mind that you will lose a good 1-2 inches of a fat quarter so make sure you have enough for your quilt pattern still!

It will fray like crazy in the wash so serge the edges first or put them in a bunch of laundry bags to help prevent them from turning into one big ball of mess.
Smaller Stitch length. Whenever I work with a looser weave like this I use a much smaller stitch length. These fabrics are prone to fraying so a smaller stitch length like 1.8 or smaller will help secure the seams a little more.
Press seams to the side. A side pressed seam is much stronger than an open seam. Since this fabric is thinner, side pressed seams work out just fine because there is minimal seam bulk. Your seams are more likely to stretch open on an open pressed seam with this fabric. So do yourself a favor and press these ones to the side.
Use half inch seam allowances where possible. You would have to refigure the entire math of a pattern to use all half inch seams so instead what I do is use 1/2 inch when possible. If anywhere in a pattern has you cutting off corners then instead of cutting 1/4 inch past the seam, I cut 1/2 inch. Geo Gems had a few opportunities for this.
Do a denser quilting design. And then lastly, quilt these woven quilts a little denser to really hold those seams in place.

Big Stitch hand quilting

If you follow along then you also know I’m recently obsessed with hand quilting. I tried hand quilting many years back and just did not enjoy it. I tried it again earlier this year and powered through the bad stitches and came out obsessed. I’ve really enjoyed having a hand quilting project going on at all times.

I’ve also discovered that I much prefer hand quilting these woven fabrics over a regular quilting cotton. They are a thinner looser weave so the needle glides right through them.

I’ve been using a chunkier size 8 thread for a bigger stitch. It can actually go pretty fast especially if you just do straight lines like I did for this quilt. My quilting lines are spaced 3/4 inch apart. I also really like the Tulip size 3 embroidery needles with this thread. I used the color Ecru thread for this Geo Gems quilt.

For this quilt I started in the middle of the quilt and stitched every 6 inches and then went back in and filled in those lines. I like to try to secure the quilt as soon as possible to prevent shifting with these wider spaced lines.

The texture from the hand quilting is so so good. I can’t help but pet this quilt. For the backing, I kept it nice and soft with another Fableism fabric. It’s a thin stripe from the Monarch Grove line.