The beginning of the end


Well despite my best intentions it is over two weeks since my last post and boy has a lot happened since then.

Lets start with the patchwork shall we… While I didn’t get any more blocks done before my last class I have been very busy in the intervening time. This weeks class was the second last and it was all about sashing, aka lattice. So that meant all the blocks needed to be ready to start putting everything together. Well cue panic of course as is usual around here I had been busy and not done enough homework, it was going to be a mad dash race to the finish line if I was going to be ready for class. Thankfully Thursday was the ANZAC day holiday and I made a conscious decision not to do any work and just concentrate on getting blocks done. I had 4 I needed to get done and the ones I wanted to do were not all that simple. A lot of pieces and or curves!

I cut and pieced my heart out and come Thursday night I had all but one block done… of course if I had thought about it I would of realised there was no way I would need all my blocks for the class but at least it made me do a lot of catching up.

So what were the final blocks to round out my quilt top ?? lets see…
Untitled
As you can see I forgot to get a picture of this one on it’s own before starting to get my sashing attached. Woops This is also the case for a few of the others.

Next up Drunkards Path (2): My second curved piecing block and let me just say… the second time was not better.

Drunkards path 2

I was in a bit of a rush getting this done. I am slow at piecing .. yes even using a machine so trying to get 4 blocks done in a day was a big ask for me and this one suffered for it. It is a little wonky and may need to have a small black border added (I’m talking 1/2 an inch at most in total) to even it up. I am rather happy though that regardless of wonkyness my centre circle seems to line up pretty well 🙂

And then there was: The fan

Fan
I love the look of this piece and it was one of the ones I was wanting to learn how to do in the class. It is done with foundation piecing and as Nic observed about this technique it was somewhat wasteful of fabric. Being one of the last blocks I did though I was able to use up some of my larger scraps rather than cutting new pieces for this block.

and finally lets take a stroll along the: Garden Path

Garden Path

I am rather happy with how this turned out. With so many little half square triangles I was sure I was going to mess up the alignment and all the points but when I pressed it all at the end I had to admit that it wasn’t too bad for a beginner. The overall block didn’t even need much trimming to add the sashing down the sides.

One of my biggest concerns was choosing what colour I was going to use for the lattice… decisions are never my strong point. I had found what I thought would be a great choice on a recent trip to Kyneton with a mottled purple from Kona Bay oh how I love their fabrics) but laying everything out on it I wasn’t convinced (picture below).

It is always hard with purples particularly trying to show the colours in photos. I asked for other people’s opinions but was still uncertain. The pother choice had just been to go with solid black and up until I started cutting the strips on Thursday night black was the winning colour. If you look at the block pictures above though you can see I had a change of mind at the last minute and went with the original purple.

Auditioning fabric for sashing

Today I have spent a little time sewing on more strips and the more I do the more I think I made the right decision. I may have to sew a fine black border around the two drunkards path blocks so the purple doesn’t disappear into the lattice but they could probably do with that to balance out the wonky bits anyway.

Oh and one last think if you have been laying attention you will realise I have only shown you 15 blocks. I finished the last block today.. I’m still stunned I’ve managed to get this far.

So what was the last block.. well it was the foundation piecing block from the class a crazy patchwork style block with mitred corners and a checkered border. All in all not too shabby and a great way to get rid of those off cut scraps (just don’t look too closely at the square border )

Final Block!

So there you have it… the beginning of the end. The homework before next class is to finish the lattice piecing to join all the blocks and then we will start with the borders.

 

2 Comments

  1. Comment by Nic on April 27, 2013 7:01 pm

    I love it! And I’m glad you went with the purple for the sashing.
    If your last class is the border, then they won’t be showing you how to quilt it, which is a shame. So I’ll give you one tip that will help the most: get a walking foot for your machine. Oh, and a aecond tip is that while sew basting takes more time than pin basting, you’ll be glad you took the time.

  2. Comment by Sharon on April 27, 2013 7:47 pm

    Your quilt is going to look fantastic when you are finished. 🙂 So what are we going to do on a Thursday night when we are finished? lol

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment

301 Moved Permanently

Moved Permanently

The document has moved here.



Sweetest Condition is proudly powered by WordPress and themed by Mukkamu