All quilted and bound! I even figure out a use for the upstairs balcony. Perfect for displaying a huge 100″ x 100″ quilt.
I am so thrilled with the result. Yes, it was a lot of work and lot of time, but the end result is so worth the time and effort.
A friend mentioned that it looks like a lot went into this. Well, she is right. Although this is a scrappy quilt I really took a lot of time planning out each block. As for the final layout, there was planning there was well.
I tried to balance both the colors of the stars as well as the white backgrounds next to darker backgrounds. When sewing the background, a lot of thought was put into the placement of the circles. I wanted a pleasing balance between size and color of circles.
I quilted a simple pattern around the stars, leaving them nice and puffy. My borders ended up being too big, despite careful measurement. So I densely quilted the borders, that helped some. What also helped was that I had to fold over excess fabric and quilt ed it down. I have learned that I am not a machine. My work isn’t perfect, but then, no one will ever see the imperfections. Especially since this quilt will end up on my bed, when it’s finally cool enough to put a quilt back on the bed.
Here you can see one of those folder I did, there were plenty. Another way of controlling the wavy border is when putting on the binding, pull it tight. But not too tight. A very delicate balance.
I love getting this kind of image, the light shining through the back of the quilt, making it look like stained glass. Another art form I love.
I found the backing fabric online, I ordered the 108″ wide and still had to sew a strip on one side, that you can see here. So much easier than piecing a huge backing.
I mentioned the mishap on the back, where the fabric got too taut. I cut it open, and did a simply patch. When all was said and done, I used this one block to cover that all up. This is a perfect example of how hard I work on the blocks. Looking at this block next to others on the design wall, this simply felt too busy. Always good to find a good purpose for them.
The view from the back.
Artistic images, I will get more, I also am working on a label, that will be a whole other story. This quilt needs to reflect the time of pandemic, riots and massive changes that are happening all around. It brought me a lot of comfort to work on this, the name and label will reflect that.
Leah