11/18/11

Drum Roll Please . . .

Ta Daaaaaa!



After suffering through all my wailing and moaning about this, I can imagine you're as happy to see it finished as I am.  What a chore!  I am so glad to have it behind me.  Actually, I had all the top-stitching finished yesterday.




Mainly, I did a straight stitch around the edges of things, but I used the fancy stitches on my sewing machine for a few little pieces.  I like how the center of the sunflower turned out.  Originally, I was going to use the same stitch and spiral around until I got to the center.  As I turned it around and around, however, it grew more and more distorted until it started to look strange.  Then I ended up just doing something more free-form with the stitch, and I think it turned out fine.

Once I had that finished, I had to make a hundred 2-patch units.  I had those all finished by the time I quit yesterday.



Today I sewed them all into 4-patch units and then into strips to make the checkerboard borders.  Each block of this quilt has a similar border, but if you study at how the completed quilt will look, you'll see that there is still a checkerboard sashing between the blocks.


I was surprised to realize that the sashing is all done in blacks and lights, rather than multi-colored like the block borders.  I suppose I could do it any way I like, but I think I will stick with the black and light.  There is another black and light border extending around the entire quilt before the two solid borders start.  The outer border is black, and so I think the black and light checkerboard sashing and border might be quite striking.  That will be for this weekend.  For now I'm happy to have moved into the final stages of assembling this quilt, and I still have plenty of time to meet my goal of finishing it by the end of November. 

Thank you, good friends, for all your supportive comments through my wailing and moaning stage.  The remainder of the quilt promises to be a lot less painful.

I'll be linking this post to:

19 comments:

♪♪Melody♪♪ and Puddin said...

It is truly beautiful!! What an accomplishment.

WoolenSails said...

Wow, that is gorgeous, love the way it is cut with the edges that way, you really did a gorgeous job on the appliques.

Debbie

❦Bayside Gal❦ said...

Sooo Pretty! I don't have the patience for applique right now. Wish I did though. Beautiful work...Really!!

Not Lucy said...

It is amazing! It is a quilt that would be on my to-do list if that list weren't too long already!

Denise :) said...

Barbara -- you must be ecstatic! It's gorgeous and I'm so excited for you! :)

Yvette said...

WOW! It turned out gorgeous!!

Unknown said...

Congratulations Barbara! It is awesome...you rock girl! Hugs

Maree said...

Well done -its beautiful.

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Jolly good job, my friend, you have accomplished a wonderful thing. What a treasure you have created, be proud of yourself.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I really love the scappy patch sashing with the flower blocks. I may have to try pinking some flowers - really like that look. Nicely done.

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

That is great! An awful lot of work went into that - and it shows - so beautiful!

Dana Gaffney said...

Easy for me to say since I'm not the one doing it, but it looks like all that work is worth it. That is beautiful. Can't wait to see the finish.

Mommarock said...

It turned out quite nicely. I've always been afraid to not stitch right on the edge of something, but the more I see it, the more I think that I might just give this a try.

Jennifer Ofenstein said...

How lovely! You did a beautiful job!

Kathy said...

What a beautiful quilt. You did an amazing job.

Sallie said...

Gorgeous!!

Nancy said...

That is simply gorgeous!

Lynette said...

I really love the colors in the checkerboard borders. :D

Suz J said...

The checkerboard border just finishes the applique block off beautifully. I also like the applique with the pinking shears edge - very unusual. Well done on a great job.