Monday, May 18, 2015

finally a finish?

A good week has passed since I posted last. I've been busy!! We had a couple of holidays the last few weeks. We actually have three long weekends in May...my oh my, how do we ever get anything done with so many holidays?? ;-) I hope to post the whole week what I have been up to. Today I am sharing my advanced sampler with you.

My quilt top and backing are now finally at the Quilt-Oase. I wanted to get this finished up last year, and it was on my last year's To-Do List. Do you remember? It was the very first one on the list!!


I finished up my last block and laid out my sashing. I was showing my blocks and sashing to other quilters, and they were steering me in a direction I didn't want to go. I understand that my XL sashing and borders take away from the sampler blocks, but that is exactly what I was going for.I wanted the blocks to become a complete design on its own collectively as if they were printed on another piece of fabric. I am proud of myself for standing my ground, by the way!


I made my backing panel...and boy with this a monster; it measures about 95 x 115 inches! Fortunately, I had enough fabric in my stash to make it. I bought this gorgeous pink and orange fabric at a very quaint fabric/quilt shop somewhere in North Carolina on a trip three years ago that matching quite well with Kate Spain's Fandango. It was at a killer price and bought five or six yards of it. (I am not going to calculate the amount, seriously I could be wrong...it could be seven). It was almost enough for the entire backing too! I made some quick large pluses to add some extra backing surface. I could have left the size as is for home quilting, but I want this one to be long arm quilted, since it it huge and will be time consuming! I went the extra mile to add ten inches to the height and width to accommodate the long arm machine. To do this, I first pieced the backing and then carefully slice it twice, once horizontally and once vertically where I eventually placed the white plus.

 

I even matched up the print in the backing when I sewed the WOFs together. I first sewed them using a 1/2" then realized I should have sewn using 1/4" to allow the pattern to repeat. I frogged it (ripped the seam) and sewed it again ;-)


So I bet you are a little curious to see how this is supposed to look in the end. This was my original design layout. It changed just a little, but the idea is still there! I reduced my border width by five inches each side to make better use of the white fabric. I used strips 11 inches unfinished for each side; therefore, I could get four strips from my fabric. You can see more pictures in my flickr album.


What did I learn this week? When you run into a problem, don't stress about it. Allow it to become a challenge and solve it with enthusiasm. Your new idea will be brilliant!

Thank you for dropping by! Time for me to go grab another cup of coffee and move on to another project. And no more samplers...well, I still have to finish up my patchwork group sampler, but that's it!!! How do you feel about samplers? Do you like to make them?

10 comments:

  1. Oh Karen, das wird wundervoll! Die Rückseite ist toll - ich liebe es, wenn auch die Rückseite etwas "Besonderes" hat! Jetzt bin ch sicher genauso gespannt wie Du, wie der Quilt aussehen wird, wenn er gequiltet zurück kommt!!!
    LG, Sandra

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  2. Brilliant! And good job sticking with your original vision, it is perfect. Samplers, hmmm. I've only made two in my thirty years of making quilts, not counting lessons given to others. Guess that answers your question!

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  3. This is going to be fabulous! Can't wait to see it back from the LA

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  4. Ein Prachtstück für die Ausstellung im Oktober. Du wirst allen damit die Show stehlen!
    Ich bin gespannt wie er ganz fertig aussehen wird.
    LG
    KATRIN W.

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  5. Your quilt will be great! Beautiful colors!

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  6. That top is lovely. I really like the colors and designs. Is your long armer in Germany? I've been looking here in Japan and haven't found any yet, so am quilting away with straight lines here...

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  7. I really like your sampler layout. With the wide sashings it does not look like a sampler at all. I made sampler blocks in my first quilting class and they are still blocks. Although I already made them in neutral colors (and had a big argument over the colors with my course teacher) I have not made a top out of them. I have to take them out again and think about it... Your sampler will be just wonderful. It will not look like a sampler at all and the blocks are really advanced blocks. How big are the blocks?

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  8. Liebe Karen,
    Der Sampler sieht wunderbar aus.
    Liebe Gruessle,
    Sylvia

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  9. Oh klasse sieht der aus, so schön farbenfroh. Das Türkis kommt durch das Gelb-Orange so richtig genial zur Geltung! Wird ein Hammer-Quilt. Die Rückseite ist auch ein Hingucker - würde ich sogar als Vorderseite durchgehen lassen ;-)
    LG, Eva

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  10. It's just ... splendid ! Congrats.
    And hello from France

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