Essex Linen Lollies Quilt

My last Lollies quilt (below) was quite colourful and chirpy – full of citrusy colour. You can read all about this version and see several other colour mock-ups in this post.

Lollies Quilt Pattern in orange, green and yellow fabrics.

For my next Lollies quilt I wanted something a little more subdued and quiet. I chose metallic Essex yarn dyed linen in Ocean for my background fabric (found here at the Fat Quarter Shop* or on Etsy*). It’s a linen/cotton blend with some metallic gold woven throughout for a lovely light-catching shine.

Navy linen Lollies quilt made by Bonjour Quilts.

For the lollies blocks I used some low volume fat quarters that I had in my stash.

fabric cut for a navy linen Lollies quilt with low volume lolly blocks.

The blocks sew up quite quickly in this pattern and I give directions on how to save the block offcuts and use them for HSTs.

Before I knew it, I had a linen Lollies quilt top ready to go!

Linen Lollies Quilt by Bonjour Quilts

For something different I decided to forgo batting in this quilt. I wanted to keep it light and with lots of drape. I suspect that means it’s not actually a quilt (defined as having 3 layers of top, batting and backing). Although I have seen two-layer creations such as this referred to as summer quilts or coverlets. Just don’t call it a blanket!

I used a run of yardage for the backing that my lovely friend Margaret gifted me (in the times before lockdown).

newsprint backing and navy linen binding for a Lollies Quilt

I pin basted the top and backing together as I wasn’t sure how well basting spray would go without the middle layer. Boy, it’s been ages since I’ve pin basted and I do not miss it at all!

Once it was basted I decided on some low-key quilting, mainly over the quilt top’s seam lines to reinforce them. I used a dark beige thread that disappeared into my low volume fabrics (and didn’t stand out much against the navy linen, either).

Navy linen Lollies quilt

While I love the look/feel of linen blends, one thing I don’t enjoy is the looser weave leading to lots of shedding along the cut edges.

I know some people like to use larger seam allowances for linen for this reason but I wasn’t in the mood for pattern recalculations. So instead I decided to concentrate my quilting lines over and very close to the seams to reinforce them.

I went over most of the seam lines twice, serpentining across and either side of the stitches. I guess we’ll see how it fares after the first 10 washings!

A navy and white, linen fabric Lollies Quilt

For binding I used more of the Essex linen as I didn’t want a contrasting effect.

Again, wary of fabric unravelling around the seam lines I decided a zigzag stitch machine binding would be perfect for this quilt.

Machine binding a linen Lollies quilt

And because I had a very close-matching blue thread you can barely see the stitching. It all blends in very nicely.

Newsprint backing and navy binding for a linen Lollies Quilt
Zigzag binding on a linen Lollies Quilt

There you have it, a lovely linen Lollies quilt (ahem, coverlet) with a very different feel to my last quilt. Would you like to sew one of your own (in any size up to king)? You can find the PDF pattern here in my shop.

Linen Lollies Quilt, made in Essex yarn dyed linen and low volume fabrics.

Remember those leftover HSTs? Well I didn’t let them go to waste – I’ll have a HST block tutorial for you shortly!

Linen and low volume fabric HST blocks

*affiliate link. If you choose to purchase thank you for supporting Bonjour Quilts!

Share or Pin for later:

Leave a comment

You'll be the first to know ;)

Quilting tutorials. Behind-the-scenes fun. Great deals on patterns. Join 14,000+ subscribers & stay in touch.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Bonjour Quilts logo nameplate