FINALLY, FINALLY we are here today with a finish. It took a bit of digging on the blog, but I found out that I started this project mid-June 2013, you can see that first post HERE. Four years and nine months to be exact. That is a long time to work on a project, but I'm happy to report it is finished and on my bed!
A brief history - This quilt is from the book, Tula Pink's City Sampler, 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. It was started in 2013 as part of a Sew Sweetness quilt along, if I remember correctly, I finished all the blocks in time to link up at the end of the quilt along. I used Lizzy House's fabric line Constellations and matching solids to construct the blocks. I believe the blocks sat for quite some time while I decided on layout and ordered fabric. I chose one of the finishes from the book and the two gray solids are Hawthorne Threads solids line, Hawthorne Hues. I constructed the quilt top and ordered backing (a Riley Blake wide back) as I didn't want to have to piece it. My mom helped me baste this monster on my kitchen floor and then the quilt sat for quite some time. In 2016 Gnome Angel hosted an Instagram event, #100days100blocks and instead of making the blocks I decided to quilt the blocks in the same manner in which they were quilted in the book in the 100 day time frame. I met that deadline and quilted each of the individual blocks. Then the quilt sat again until the beginning of this year when I decided it was time to get this monster finished (and my husband said he was tired of seeing it folded and full of safety pins.)
The quilting story - All 100 blocks were quilted using free motion quilting and based on how they were quilted in the book. The blocks in the book were quilted by Angela Walters and I thought it would be a great learning experience to duplicate how she had quilted each block. Boy was it a great learning experience and I highly recommend it! By the time I had finished quilting all 100 blocks I really felt that I had a great grasp on free motion quilting. This was the easy part, the hard part was deciding on how I was going to quilt the stripes or background and why the project sat for so long. I was so hung up on the idea that it had to be free motion quilted and I kept circling around some kind of "star or celestial" theme. In the end I just couldn't figure out a way to make it work and I just picked up the quilt. Fast forward to January of this year, Debbie at A Quilter's Table was working on a table runner for her mom and talked about the book Walk by Jacquie Gering, which I already owned but had yet to read. I started reading the book and it just hit me! Why not straight line quilt it using the techniques/designs from this book? I was overthinking it as usual. I pulled out the quilt and using the blocks and stripes as a connect the dots of sorts was able to use the Point-To-Point Lines technique in the book and created this really cool diamond pattern seen below.
I started with the dark stripes and marked the centers between each block and the centers of each block that extend into the stripe. Then using my hera marker I "connected" the dots creating large and small diamonds. I quilted all the dark stripes in this manner. When that was complete I went back and added in the smaller diamonds that are in the center, once again, marking centers and using my hera marker. Once all the dark gray lines were complete (half of the quilt finished) I switched to the light stripes. I had to mark considerably less since I was matching up to the dark stripes. You can see this below where the diamond points meet from the dark to the light stripes. I used matching 40 weight Aurifil 100% cotton thread and had no issues from the start. No breaking, no tension issues, it worked perfectly. The quilting took me roughly 3 weeks to finish, working a few lines every day until it was done. I quilted it on my Juki 2010, using a size 14 stretch needle, and I wrestled the hell out of it as it is really heavy.
The binding is a Lizzy House asterisk print that I bought specifically to use for this and thank goodness I bought a yard as I used almost all of it. I decided to machine stitch every bit of the binding as everything else on this quilt was done by machine, so why not. I did try a new to me technique when binding this quilt and from now on I'll do nothing else as it worked so wonderfully. I stitched the binding to the front as I normally would and then i took the time to iron the binding to the back and iron the mitered corners. Then using Elmer's washable school glue, I ran a small bead underneath the binding and ironed it again (to dry the glue almost instantly) thus holding it exactly where I needed it and I used no pins or binding clips. From the front of the quilt I stitched in the ditch right beside the binding and you can see below exactly how it turned out. Using this method I didn't have any mess-ups or spots where the binding didn't get stitched, it worked perfectly! Ta-da! I was finished.
I finished the quilt mid-March and on Easter Sunday with the help of my husband and brother-in-law was able to get photos. The finished quilt measures 102" x 104" and they are both standing on ladders in order to hold it high enough to get the whole thing off the ground. You have no idea how thrilled I was to get these photos and this quilt finished. It really and truly made my Easter day.
This quilt has been on my Finish-A-Long list, on and off for years so I am delighted to say that in the first quarter of 2018 it is officially linked up and off of my list! The quilt is now on my queen sized bed in our new master bedroom in the addition that we have been working on for the past year. This quilt is really a king-sized quilt so it hangs generously off the sides and gives us plenty to cover our pillows which is fantastic.
This quilt has been on my Finish-A-Long list, on and off for years so I am delighted to say that in the first quarter of 2018 it is officially linked up and off of my list! The quilt is now on my queen sized bed in our new master bedroom in the addition that we have been working on for the past year. This quilt is really a king-sized quilt so it hangs generously off the sides and gives us plenty to cover our pillows which is fantastic.
I had to include this outtake of my husband cutting up after we finished taking photos. It really is like pulling teeth to get help for 5 minutes to take these photos, but he was a big help and without him I wouldn't have been able to get it done.
I'm linking this finish up with the 2018 Finish-A-Long, even though I'm not eligible for prizes since I'm a host, but that is ok as the ultimate prize is this finish! My Q1 list can be found HERE.
Though the link-up is closing in a few hours, you do still have time to link-up so go and do it, you can find the Q1 Finishes link-up HERE. If you didn't join us for Q1, feel free to join Q2, anyone with sewing/quilting/stitching/yarn work projects are welcome to join us and we would love to have you!
Though the link-up is closing in a few hours, you do still have time to link-up so go and do it, you can find the Q1 Finishes link-up HERE. If you didn't join us for Q1, feel free to join Q2, anyone with sewing/quilting/stitching/yarn work projects are welcome to join us and we would love to have you!
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