The construction of the quilt

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20.11.15:   5 blocks, 166 pieces
30.12.15: 16 blocks, 510 pieces
10.01.16: 30 blocks, 1.118 pieces


This photo with 30 blocks was not meant to be a progress-photo. At that point I wanted to check on the colours. Until block 25 I made all the blocks with light, prominent colours with a lot of contrast to the dark background-fabric. Each block was beautiful. But when I looked at them together on the dark fabric, the impression was to intense. I made the next 5 blocks in mute colours - and the result is much better! I will make a fifth of the blocks in mute colours = 17 blocks.

Wow - that's a bunch of 85 blocks!


85 blocks are finished (the last one was still on the ironing board), now I had to arrange them.

I don't aim for arranging them as in Salina Rupps quilt. There are several blocks with similar patterns and of course a lot of blocks are made by the same fabric. I don't want either of them laying too close to each other.

This is the result (on the photo the blocks lay next to each other, my floor is not big enough):

Now I can start to add the sashing!

Oh dear, it was a lot of work. It was easy and fast work to sew the short strips (6,5x2,5 inch) to the blocks. I starched every single sashing before I sew it.
But these long long strips! The two longest strips measured 90 inches. I starched them too, of course. But still, a lot of work.

I marked the long strips (even the short ones with 24 inches) to make sure I did not stretch them during the actual sewing, I used the Sewline Chalk marker.  And I pinned the strips to the blocks (pinning always means using the red Clover-Wonder-clips; I can't quilt without them). And then I pressed the strips/blocks. And pinned. And sewed. And pressed. And added the side-triangles. There was no end....
But finally it was done!!!


Insane!
The top finished at 80x80 inches. I added the border (again pinning endless strips). I decided not to add a pieced border, otherwise the quilt would've become way too big.

And now the top is really finished, I can hardly believe it. I started making the first blocks in November 15 and finished the top March 17th 2016.

Yeaaahhhh!

For the record:
4.312 pieces for 85 blocks
     72  short sashing-strips
     12  long sashing-strips
     24  side-triangles 
       4  corner-triangles
       4  border-strips
________________________
= 4.428 pieces for the top

By the way - I used 8 meters of the green fabric, only for the top. Incredible! There's about a half meter left.

I had ordered more fabric in February (I was lucky, they still had it). This became the middle-strip of the backing.

This time I sewed the label before I finished the binding. And I included the label in the middle-strip of the backing, so it can't tear off later. For the label I made again block 40, this time with various fabric-scraps.

Number of pieces for the backing:
     21 pieces for block 40
       4 green pieces
       2 blue pieces
______________________
=      27 pieces for the backing
= 4.455 pieces total until now



I don't dare to quilt this quilt by myself.

It has too many seams and bulks for handquilting.
In-the-ditch-quilting would destroy the 'swimming'-effect I'm aiming for.
There are too many seams and bulks for freemotion for my skill.

So this will be the first quilt I'm giving to a professional longarm-quilter. I'm very excited!!

I choose a purple thread for the top and a blue one for the bottom. We discussed the pattern and went for simple swirls.

I can pick up the quilt at the end of May.



It's finished!

And so beautiful -

Helga Polifka in Sarnau did a great job.
The quilt turned out exactly as I imagined it. No extra quilting on the sashings, no extra quilting on the blocks. Just a plain overall swirl-pattern on the whole quilt and the border.

The blocks are really swimming on the green background.

I still have to decide the colour of the binding - green or scraps of purple/pinc or blue (the backing-fabric).

And when everything is done we'll have a photo-session outside on a sunny day!!

And here are some details of the quilt-pattern:


Omigod, that quilt is so beautiful!

The binding -
for this insane quilt I decided to cut the binding on the bias for the first time in my life.

Shelley Rodgers wrote a perfect tutorial for it, with a table for yardage for each length and width. You can find the tutorial here.

I followed the tutorial without looking or thinking - but I admit that I had enough of the blue fabric to cut the binding on the straight of grain in case I failed.

But I did not fail - Shelleys instructions are so easy to understand that I just show my photos here.


And there it is - washed and dried in all its glory!

If somebody is interested: the quilt measures 88x88 inch and weighs 2,9 kg.

I'm glad I did not make that zigzag border - heaven knows how much it would weigh then!

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Comments (4)

  • Pam
    Pam
    at 20.12.2019
    Oh, Nina - it is GORGEOUS!! What a lot of work in such a short period of time. I love the sequence of pics to see what went into this piece. Thank you so much for sharing this journey so now we'll know what we're getting into if we ever try such a thing! :-)

    Pam in New Hampshire, USA
  • Britta Wingen
    Britta Wingen
    at 20.12.2019
    Quilt ist einfach atemberaubend schön geworden! Ich weiß immer noch nicht, wie man sooo kleine Stückchen Stoff sooo perfekt aufeinander nähen kann - ich bin sehr beeindruckt. Und ich freue mich wie Bolle darauf, diesen Quilt einmal live und in Farbe zu sehen. Superschön!!!
  • Helga Polifka
    Helga Polifka
    at 20.12.2019
    Hochachtung vor dieser Nähleistung; es hat mir super viel Spaß gemacht diese tolle Arbeit zu quilten. Danke für das Vertrauen das Sie in mich gesetzt haben.
  • Susan Webster
    Susan Webster
    at 20.12.2019
    I saw your link from the email from the Farmers Wife group. So glad I took the time to view your journey with this quilt too. Beautiful, love the colors on the black.

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