Reconstruction

Now that Edward's quilt is finished, I've been thinking about this project, which I started at the same time in November 2010. The last time I pulled it out I had taken apart all these squares and I planned to wash them, re-cut and re-assemble them. This week I decided to skip the washing and go straight to the re-cutting.

All the red HSTs went from 4 1/2" to 3 1/2":

And all the yellow HSTs went from 2 1/2" to 2":

Is this a good idea that I would recommend to others? NO! This is pure stubbornness on my part. I have been using the June Tailor half and quarter square triangle ruler, which is very accurate, but still awkward and tiring to use. I started with a plan to make four blocks in a single batch, and I ended up just managing the one, because I simply couldn't cut any more HSTs.

The block is now 12 1/2" unfinished. It's not perfect, but it'll do. I have redesigned this quilt at least a dozen times, and I am ready to see the back of it. As it stands now, I will only need eight of these large blocks. Hopefully I can manage that!

I am worried, though, that I may have to buy more of the purple and black background fabrics. Those corner squares weren't in the original design! It's Kaufman Kona, so at least more will be easy to find.

Finally Finished!

Black, White and Read All Over, 64" x 64"

Edward's quilt is finally finished! Started in November 2010, the flimsy was finished and the quilt was basted in 2012. I started the quilting on my old machine, which had to be taken for repair and cleaning twice during the process. And it still wasn't until I got my new machine this spring that I managed to finish the quilting.

It is straight line quilted:

I like quilting double lines like this, because it fools the eye into thinking the lines are straighter than they are!

In the close up you can see that all the fabrics have some kind of kanji script, either real or imaginary. So theoretically, you could "read" the quilt. Hence the title:

You can see the label was optimistically stitched in 2012, lol! The design is from Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles Times Two book. She sews the label to the back before it is quilted, which I tried here as well. I worried about it catching during the machine quilting, but it didn't. With all the problems I did have on this quilt, the label wasn't one of them.

The backing is a new flannel sheet that I got on sale. It really was too heavy for my old machine, but the new machine handled it fine. I like the masculine Buffalo check!

So, Edward's quilt is my second finished flimsy, and my second finished quilt. While we were out taking photos, I took a better picture of Nine Patch Jubilee as well. That was my third finished flimsy, and first finished quilt:

Where is flimsy number one, you ask? LOL. Packed away. Maybe I will get it out some day, maybe not.

Anyway, it feels great to finally have this one done. I even have a 3" scar on my forearm from one of the basting pins that came open when I started the quilting in 2012! But it's fading...

Best of all, now I have room for a new project in my sewing area! Home Sweet Home will get the nod, I think.

Housekeeping

I'm claiming my blog on Bloglovin, at last:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I've had the Bloglovin button for followers in my sidebar for about a year, but I'm finally making the switch myself to use it as my main blog reader instead of the Blogger dashboard. The dashboard reader has been very unreliable lately, some posts have been late or missing. And the Bloglovin reader is very clean and easy to use, with nice large photos (the most important part!).

Otherwise, it's been a steady stream of birthdays and holidays all spring, plus several trips to the garden centre, so I haven't done much sewing lately.

And, I finally got rid of my guild's historic archives, which were stored in my basement for the past two years. Now, though, I have no more excuses to avoid cleaning out a lot of my own old stuff, so I hope to do that in stages over the summer as well.

On a side note, one interesting offshoot of my effort to use more purple in my projects is that I've become obsessed with purple flowers this spring! These Johnny Jump Ups, or small pansies, seed themselves between our patio stones every year:

They look a little worn, but the colours are inspiring!

Back to stitching soon! :D