5/15/18

Never Ending Quilting

Is it possible for a quilt to grow even after the piecing is finished? I'm asking for a friend. I could swear the Quiltmaker's Garden is larger every time I quilt a section of it. There I am, quilting along, and I think I'm making progress. Only then, I look at it, and I swear the quilt is larger than I remembered it.

Yesterday's progress included more Greek key motifs on the uprights of the gazebo, and more terry twists. Also, I moved on to one of the "pinwheel flowers" and quilted that.


My favorite way to quilt a pinwheel is to give it tendrils that face in opposite directions, so that they form a heart shape.


Here's how that looks from the back.


Looking back at the whole quilt, you can see there are three of these pinwheel flowers on the right side. Two of them are partially covered by the applique vine.


So, how am I going to quilt those?


It's always been my intention to outline the leaves and vine and then quilt in some details. For the flower, I decided to do a dot-to-dot sort of motif around the triangles. As I bumped into the applique, I simple outlined around it until I came to the other side and could continue on with the flower.


It was even trickier with the third flower.


But I got 'er done.


Eliza is located in the hottest part of the house, and we're experiencing some warmer-than-normal weather right now. By the time I'd done that, I'd been at it for about an hour and a half, and I was sweating from the heat. I finished off another section of terry twists, but then called it quits and poured myself a glass of ice water.

Today I should have some time to get back at this and do a little more. I'm also picking up my quilt from the quilt show and then getting my hair cut. If I can keep at this a little each day, I'm confident I can finish it up by the end of the month. Still, I'm taking a class the latter part of the week, and so I'll have several days without any time for sewing. It's starting to feel a little like crunch time.

6 comments:

QUILTING IS BLISSFUL, DI said...

You are doing a beautiful job on this quilt---and remember Rome wasn't built in a day or a week!!!
enjoy,di
PS--maybe you need more 'fur babies' helping you to finish it!!! :)

Vicki W said...

I think your quilting is looking great!

Shirley said...

Your quilting is just spectacular! It's like each section of the quilt is telling you what it needs and you are listening. Loved the top even before you started quilting it. So beautiful.

Liz Horgan said...

Such a beautiful quilt!
I really love the way you quilted the pinwheels with the tendrals--it took me a minute to see the hearts!

piecefulwendy said...

I can imagine it feels like it grows, especially when you just want to be done with it. In the end, it will probably turn out to be one of your favorite quilts, who knows? It's really looking nice, Barbara, with all the cool quilting you are adding in. I was thinking of you last night as I was watching Chef's Table. Do you ever watch that show? It's fascinating to me.

Brown Family said...

I feel like my quilts grow as I am binding them! Those sides seem to get longer!