Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Goal Acheived!

I'm amazed that I managed to finish my August goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. Life with two kids is so busy, finding time to sew is a challenge. Managing to blog is even harder (hence the lack of updates lately). And yet, I've actually accomplished so much in the last weeks of August. I can't wait to share it all with you tomorrow in my WIP Wednesday post.

Today's post, however, is about my Stacking the Odds quilt top. It's my first queen sized quilt and I think it will be a long time before I attempt another quilt this size. As I mentioned in a previous post, piecing this quilt was tricky, in part due to the use of templates. Another issue was the way the background fabric is cut. The two outer columns are cut on a diagonal with one end being 5 3/8 inches wide and the opposite being 7 5/8. The column itself is over 90 inches long. Who has a straight edge that long? No one!
My solution was to use a piece of yarn and draw the line with chalk, but the result wasn't perfect. Not even close. However, I embraced imperfection and decided it was "good enough" and moved on.

The size of the quilt itself provided another challenge. I don't have enough floor space in my condo to lay the top out flat, even after pushing furniture against the walls. This made pinning the final borders difficult. It also means that I simply can't baste this beast at home. So, even though I'd love to get this quilt finished, I'm going to have to wait until the next Quilt Sunday at The Workroom to baste. The upside is that I'll have use of a huge table, as well as some lovely ladies to help me.

In the meantime, I'll be working on the backing. As usual, I'll be making a scrappy backing using the leftover pieces, Kona pepper and a fabric by Parsons Grey which I picked up today. I also bought some variegated thread for quilting. I'm planning to do a figure eight pattern from edge to edge.
Here's a photo of the finished top. Due to space constraints, it's really tricky to get a good photo - our bedroom is pretty small!
 The next time you see this quilt, it will be in a finish post. Wish me luck!


P.S. I should mention that I was a July winner in the A Lovely Year of Finishes random draw, which this the 2nd time I've won! This time I received 10 spools of Aurifil. Lucky me! Thank you so much to Shanna and Melissa for their hard work.

6 comments:

  1. The quilt is gorgeous, and all that Aurilfil... I'm jealous! What a win!

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  2. Congrats on the Aurifil! It will feel FABULOUS when that quilt is done. I have one from my FAL list that I've been avoiding.

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  3. It's hard to believe that a relatively easy looking quilt could be so deceivingly difficult. I absolutely love your colour choices - are you keeping this one?

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  4. Beautiful quilt! The colors are great. When I don't have the space to baste an overly large quilt, I have been know to knock on a neighbor's door with a bottle of wine to rent her floor for a while haha.

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  5. This quilt is gorgeous and deceptive. It holds secrets.

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  6. That quilt top is looking fab - I am also template allergic but the results are pretty awesome!

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