A Scrappy Finish!

    Once upon a time, on this blog, I wrote about a scrap quilt I was starting as a leader/ender project.  For a time, it even became a primary project because those little blocks were so much fun.  I'm happy to report that all of those cute little blocks are now a gorgeous big quilt.  Because they were so much fun, I  couldn't stop at 100 or 150, but just kept going.  At 175, I finally thought "enough already" and stopped to decide how big a quilt I wanted.  The setting I wanted needed 196 blocks to complete the design, so that was my goal.  For some reason, that last set of 10 blocks took forever.  I think I was dragging my feet because I knew the laying out of the blocks was going to take a very big space, bigger than my design wall, and a lot of time.
     Our guild sews together in a church basement on a monthly basis, so I took those 200 blocks with me last week and laid them out with the help of some of my quilty friends.  I won't go into much detail about the trials and tribulations suffered while sewing the blocks together.  I will only say it required some unstitching and restitching and took most of the week.

    After some trial and error, mostly error, I decided it could be managed better in fourths.  Here is 1/4 of it webbed on the ironing board.  I am pressing seams in preparation for putting the rows together.  

Quality control committee of one.

Ta Da!

Not the best picture, but the only place I could find to lay it flat.  When I get it quilted, I will get a picture on the clothesline or commandeer some family to hold it for me.  

Here is the center.

     Just for curiosity's sake, I ran some calculations on the numbers involved in making this.

Size - 90" X 90", 196 blocks, set 14 blocks across and 14 down, with a 2-1/2" border, just to control the stretching on the edges.  

# of pieces - 2352

# of seams to match, joining the blocks into rows - 54 per row

# of seams to match to join the rows - 648

Total # of seams to match after blocks are made - 1404

Speaking of matching seams, they are not all perfect.  My mother used to say that if you couldn't see it from a galloping horse, it was ok.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  

     My granddaughters visited this week and we finished piecing Amy's quilt with the help of big sister, Olivia.  It started as a rail fence design and we set it together using the sashing technique I taught at Quilt Camp last spring.  So easy and it really makes a great quilt.  Here it is with two proud girls and their Nana.  

     There won't be much stitching this week, as our peach trees are almost ready to harvest and I will be elbow deep in peaches.  

Aren't they beautiful?  Wouldn't those colors make a pretty quilt?

Hope you get some stitching done this week.

Judy

Patches and Pinwheels

    Or I could re-title this post, "Grand Illusion Revisted".  Do you remember those green, cream and black pieced sashings that I eliminated from my Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion mystery quilt?  Those have been hanging around my sewing room, nagging my inner frugal self for several months.  There had to be a use for them.  Our guild decided on a challenge for this year, calling it "Its all about Bonnie".  (We are hosting a trunk show and two workshops with Bonnie in September.  See the website  stitchbystitchquilters.org for trunk show tickets.)  We will display those quilts at the event in a mini quilt show.   I was looking a slide show from quiltville.com one day and Viola!  Patches and Pinwheels!  As my Mother would say "Kill two birds with one stone".   The arrangement of the block was a little different, but I could see the possibilities.   It was 2" squares.  Some had to be unstitched a little, but most were still in 4 patches, so could be arranged in the 16 patch block without any ripping.  I had lots of scraps for pinwheels, thus another quilt was born and my frugal self was appeased.

I like that green better in this quilt.

Some of the quilting.

I pieced the back from 10 inch squares.  I won't do that again, it was too hard to quilt.  Too many seams.

I did get to use some of this fabric from my stash.  I love those clocks.

One more picture.  I don't think I posted a picture of the finished graduation quilt.  If I did, please forgive me.  At least this one has the grandson in it.  

I think he liked it.  

     That's all for now.  I have been doing a little antiquing, but will talk about that later.

Keep on stitchin',

Judy