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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Row 9

More progress on Dutch Treat #3

Partridge
Pea Pod
Phazer
Piazza
Picture Frames
Pineapple
Pinwheels
Plantaganet

 

Here's row 9

And here's all 9 rows draped over a quilt rack (but not all joined together).  It's become quite colorful!




I've also been machine quilting one of the tops I had basted last week.  This one was made in 2006, if you can believe it.  It was a BOM at my local quilt shop using Thangles .  There would have only been 12 blocks but I wanted a bigger quilt, so I bought 3 of the strip sets each month and browsed a block encyclopedia to find more blocks that were composed entirely of HSTs and squares.  I can't say I'm a fan of Thangles because I'm not.  I still prefer to use oversized squares to make HSTs and then trim them to the perfect size.


Here I am working on the quilt.



But I ran into a problem..or as I prefer to call it..a design opportunity. The friend who basted my quilts on her long arm, lined up the top and batting EXACTLY with the edge of the backing  when she started, rather than centering both on the backing as I had expected and do myself.  I didn't realize that and started quilting in the center as I always do.  The top also wasn't as taut as when I pin baste and moved as I quilted towards the outer edges.  And then I realized I was going to be short of both batting and backing.   Ugh...................I was heartsick. 

I could think of a couple of solutions....one being to sew more backing along the short edge and then baste more batting butted up against the other.  But the top  had pieced cornerstones  like this

And the way the top had shifted I was afraid I might run short of backing and batting at all four corners and with pieced blocks such as this I couldn't just trim  them to fit.
So I removed them, added plain squares of the same fabric I used for cornerstones in the body of the quilt (a green print) and spent a couple of days appliquing flowers in each of them.



 Now I'm ready to quilt the borders.  I may even end up liking it better than the original design....maybe.

I'm trying not to think about the other (and much bigger) tops that were probably basted in the same manner. 

5 comments:

Crispy said...

I love how the colors worked on the patridge and the pineapple. This DT is going to have such a different look to it with this pretty fabric.

I would have been heartsick too!! I always have my backing and batting larger than the top because of shifting. It sounds like you found a good solution :0)

Crispy

Lynette said...

Love Partridge! Actually, I really like this whole group. :)

Lynette said...

Ack I got enter-happy before I was finished - What a bummer about the quilt snafu. I really do love your solution corners, though. They look snazzy with the inside and I think they do bring the whole design off nicer than the original blocks, somehow. The other quilts waiting - at least you'll know before a bunch of quilting is done, when it's easier to work up a remedy. . . :(

Barb said...

I always always enjoy your post and you work so quickly. I love everything you work on.

Sunna Reyr said...

Your DT is really coming along nicely, I love them all, some more than others though. Lol.

I'm glad you did not let the batting, backing problem stop you and I love your solution, I would never have thought of what you did. Great job.