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No, I don't have a finished quilt yet. I've 17 blocks.
But as with Nearly Insane I want to check my colour-selection.

I put all the blocks on green background fabric, I plan to use that fabric for the sashing too.

The result:

Ahhhg.

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Update: A publishing house for sheet music had asked me: They want to use that photo for a cover. Wow!!

you can see the book here:

When I had 81 (!) blocks I laid them on the floor:

Hm. To be honest, this doesn't blow me away.  :- (
One thing is the blue colour on these photos, I put a single block below which shows the real green. But that is only the photo.
But most of all this looks like chaos! Really, I must add a sashing later. Maybe the green (if there is enough fabric left) or the light grey. Or white. Or something else.
And maybe I have to set the quilt on point. The original layout looks kind of boring.
A boring chaos. Who would have that?

I compared it with Nearly Insane - when I laid the blocks side by side, it also looked chaotic. And later with the sashing just beautiful!

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Dear Jane and no end. Right now I am at row L. At this point (today is the 7th of July 2018) there are 23 blocks left. That means I made already 146 blocks. I think this will be the last big sampler-quilt in my quilter-life, I started the blocks 13 months ago. I am just tired of them!

During the past weeks I began to think about what I'm gonna do with the blocks. At the beginning I had planned to make the border-triangles too. But now I'm fed up with Paper Piecing. After all I don't have to prove anything to myself anymore. After Farmer's Wife, Nearly Insane and the 169 Dear Jane center blocks I think we can state than I can do complicated blocks! :-)
ok. I can do complicated blocks as long as they don't have y-seams!

Today I tried several layouts in EQ7. The blocks finish at 4,5 inch.
I always thought I'd make a sashing of 1,0 inch finished size. There are 4 colour options: green sashings with grey cornerstones or grey sashings with green cornerstones. Or everything green or grey.

But somehow I find it all boring as hell. I put the blocks on-point.
Of course, there are the same 4 colour options.

But looking at the layouts in EQ7 I realize that I prefer the completely green version. The blocks are so tiny and have so many pieces  - if I add cornerstones in another colour it is just too messy.

For on-point here only the green version:

But: In this version I can use only 162 blocks. And even if I add these borders the quilt finishes at 83 x 92 inch. That is too small.
I can put the 7 remaining blocks somewhere - in the border as an accent or on the back. But too small? Wider borders?
Hm.

What now?
Laura Fraga also put one of her Dear Janes (she really made several already) on-point. She didn't use all 169 blocks. But she put alternating solid blocks in between! You can see her DJ here, it is the 3rd quilt from the top.

Again EQ7 - without sashing, but with alternating green blocks. That way I can use all 169 blocks!

Wow - I like that very much!!! And this time the quilt will be 95 x 95 inch. Good size! It will shrink some and than it has the perfect size (we are very tall people).
Let me check if I have enough green fabric left.

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Several quilts/byAnnie-bags later:
Yes, I really did have enough fabric! It was enough for two very long borders, 144 squares and 52 side-triangles. I spent one sunday afternoon to cut all the pieces, no fun.

I opened the quilt again in EQ7. I had to decide where to put the 14 dark-grey and the 22 medium-grey blocks in between the 133 light-grey blocks.
Here are two possibilities (I coloured the medium-grey to pink to make it easier to spot):

Hm. I'm still not happy. I know that the middle is very important - somehow I see the middle part mostly, not the border-part. Right now there is too much of that dull medium-grey.

Better like this?

Yes, much better.
Oh Dear (Jane), now I have to lay the blocks down, I have no design wall. Where is enough space to lay 169 + 144 + 52 + 4 pieces? Maybe in the evening in the office after everybody left?

Yes! Two of my collegues offered to help to lay all the pieces on the floor and after that stack them up in order to carry them to the sewing machine:

It was not so bad to sew these long rows together, even the pressing was not so bad. This is the longest row with 110 inches:

But then...
Endless rows have to be sewed and pressed. Endless rows... my ironing board is NOT 110 inch long :-(

Half of the top is done!
I put the very last block M-13 right in the middle of the quilt. This is the only block I really remember, the other 168 are a blurr.

No end in sight. Actually the sewing itself was easy. Beause of the chess-board-pattern with the green squares there is no need to draw lines or to pin. The seams matched easily. But to press these rows...

Finished! The top is too big for my floor, is measures already -without borders- 83 inches. I did not yet trim - I was through with Dear Jane for this weekend.

But it looks as stunning as I had hoped!

By the way - these are my hands after 6 hours of sewing the top and after washing  :-)    Fabric is dirty!

Now I have to add the 3 borders. I need only 12 seams for the 3 borders, but it took me 4 hours with all that pressing.

First border:

2. border:

3. border:

The finished top, ready for quilting!

Now there will be a break. I don't dare to quilt that monster by myself. Instead I will visit Helga Polifka in Sarnau at the end of september.

Right now I think of an overall-pattern. This quilt is not meant to be sent to quilt-fairs so it doesn't need a heavy, dense elaborated quilting. I want to use it at home, so a not too loose overall-pattern should be ok. Let's wait which suggestions Helga Polifka will have!

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We discussed options and choose orange-peels for the blocks and 3 different patterns for the 3 borders.

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November: Helga Polifka did a terrific job!  That's the view from the back (click on the photo to enlarge it):

And that's the front!!

Beautiful details (click on the photo to enlarge it):

Now the only thing left is the binding. I made a bias binding for this quilt.

And here it is!  I insisted on taking photos before it went into the washing machine - one nevers knows how the quilt will come out.

It's a very stormy day today (8th december), Dear Jane always wanted to fly away.

Because it is huge we took the photos while it hang over a balcony.