That’s task #6 of the 19 needed to get the 12 quilts completed by the end of the year for the Crazy Challenge II. This is the backing for Nifty Thrifty. Given that some of the tasks are going to take longer than a week (finishing the Green & Cream Swap and the Compass Lone Star come to mind) and there are tentative plans to travel in November, I need a couple of quick finishes.
Yes, this is the backing. I think I like it better than the quilt front. With the exception of the last seam, which I may or may not deal with, the last 28 inch of length (the right edge hanging this way) went together smoothly. If I’ve measured right, I’ll lose about 3″ on either side (where the piano keys are) and at least 3″ on the bottom.
My rules for making the quilt. No yardage could be used except for the pink/purple butterfly fabric. All ‘filler’ pieces had to come from my pre-cut strip boxes. I still have tons from the pink and white HST units left over and a few decent sized blocks which didn’t make it into the backing.
There are leftover blocks from one of my earliest quilts — a Pink Yellow Brick Road. A couple of extra blocks from the quilts I may my twin niece and nephew. The top right and lower left blocks were from a guild BOM that I wimped out on. I’m not sure why I made the lavender crossed canoe block – I’m sure I was testing something.
In the end, I used just shy of a yard of the butterfly fabric and not quite 3/4 of a yard of strips from my pre-cut boxes.
And if you are wondering, this is the quilt top this backing goes with.
After binding the quilt in the pink fabric from the front, I may have enough left over for the cuff of a pillowcase. I’ll use the butterfly fabric for the body of the case. Now to find time to quilt it!
I took out the 8″ block and replaced it with the 7″ yellow and blue/pink batik pinwheel in the middle. The quilt hangs so much better now. I need about 28 more inches in length and it will be done. I’ve got most of the rest mapped out.
I’ve been working on this backing ‘organically’ — no real plan just pulling blocks and sewing them together. But last night I started to worry about whether or not I have enough parts and pieces to make this top 72″ x 90″. It’s time to put pencil to paper to graph out the bottom portion of the quilt.
That’s when I discovered that it’s not that I’ve got the quilt pinned to tightly that’s causing that buckling, but rather I’ve managed to get an extra inch of fabric in the middle of what I’ve pieced so far.
There are two issues.
So, it seems I’ll be doing a bit of frogging tonight after dinner.
I’ve been sewing bits and pieces for two days and I have half a back. I just hope that I have enough blocks left on the wall and the deep recesses of the orphan block/pieces box to finish it.
I started to title this post ‘Why Make Things Easy’, but opted for ‘Flying Fabric’ as there is fabric and blocks everywhere in my sewing room. Blocks on the ironing board, yardage & quilt pieces for 3 different quilts on my desk & cutting table. Tiny HST units on the table beside my machine, tumbler or fabric for tumblers in 2 different spots and more parts and pieces stacked on top of the challenge quilt tops. Oh, yeah, there are parts and pieces on the design wall.
Fabric is flying around here.
So, why did I consider the other title? Because it would have been so much easier to just pad blocks to 12″ and make 6 columns of blocks. But instead, this is what I’ve come up with so far.
Of course now that I’m doing this, I’m concerned that I’m not going to have enough blocks for a 72 x 88 backing. We’ll see what I get done tomorrow. I’m going to go watch the baseball game.
Having bound the first Disappearing 9-Patch, I’m now working on the backing for the pink and floral Aiming for Accuracy quilt top. I pulled all the pink, purple and floral blocks from my Orphan Quilt Box as a start. I’ve got a whole pile of pink and white bounce HST from an earlier quit and those are going to get made into pinwheels and added to the mix. Finally I’m going to use this pink and purple butterfly fabric to fill in the gaps.
Blocks will be rearranged before I’m done.
See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.
This past week I actually finished stuff to the point I can count it! Two backings – one for the quilt pictured above and another shirt backing for one of the other Disappearing 9-patches. Normally I don’t count backings until the quilt is quilted, but given that this back is pieced and it could be a quilt on it’s own, I’ve counted it now. There is binding and the label to count for the Orange Disappearing 9-patch as well. As you can see, Gracie approves.
Fabric Added Since Last Report 0.0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 185.805 yards
Fabric Used Since Last Report: 11.693 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 73.476 yards
INCREASE in Stash to Date: 112.327 yards
See how others are doing over at Patchwork Times.
It’s time to report on my UFO Busting progress. No finishes in August — but progress was made. I completed one quilt top and two pieced backings. I’ve started quilting one of the Disappearing 9-patches and have identified a dozen quilts that I want/need to finish by the end of the year.
See how others are doing by following the links over at Field Trips in Fiber.
