Sunday, March 08, 2009

At last -- Easy, and Finished!


Yeah - finished! A group of Guild members were having a Sew Day during the summer. We had several community tubs of unclaimed fabric and blocks, and when the day was over, no one else claimed them, so with a promise that I would make them into "something," and donate it to "someone," they came home with me -- about 4 years ago.

The 9-patches were various sizes, from 5 1/2 inches to 6 3/4. I DID manage to be brave and discarded the unsuitable -- YES, in the trash! (I felt strong that day!) The rest were trimmed to 5 1/2 inches, with no regard for the seam lines. They were set on point and hour glass/quarter squares were set between them. (Snowball blocks between would have required that seam lines 9-patch be exact - which they weren't!) This quilt turned out so much better than I imagined! (How often do we quilters say that same thing?)

I quilt on my DSM. Below is one of my practice patterns and what I used on this quilt. It's drawn on paper so you can see it. I quilted the borders in 4 different patterns (different, for more practice), and you can't see any of it because of the busy-ness - MORE practice and I'm feeling confident! Whew, almost one year of practice but the quilting part no longer scares me. (A THANK YOU to PatsyThompsonDesigns.com, and The Pajama Quilter DVDS.)

I DO wish I had used a darker thread for the quilting, but overall, I am extremely pleased. It's a large quilt, about 64 x 82.

Yeahhhh, about 14 yards busted, including batting!



23 comments:

  1. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Don't you love your Janome6600P? I sure love mine. It is a workhorse!
    Ibought a new free motion foot for mine. Need to try it out!!
    I have another bunch of multicolored 9-patches from an internet exchange. I plan on using the hourglass block between them too.
    I love the design. How do you keep your place when making the motifs? I followed them with my finger. Neat!
    Subee in rainy Northern Indiana. I am handquilting today while doing laundry.

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  2. all I can say is BEAUTIFUL!!!

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  3. IT's beautiful and nice quilting job! I really have to branch out and try something more adventurous like that motif you have used.

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  4. It looks great! I love the quilting pattern and especially like the hearts & loops in the white border.

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  5. How pretty it turned out! I love your quilting - I'm still a little chicken to try anything as elaborate as that pattern. What a joy to take a pile of cast-offs and turn them into a thing of beauty.

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  6. Very nice! You're doing great! And the creative block setting...inspiring! When I am feeling pressed (like between a rock and a hard place) and cannot even consider starting a new project, I sit down and make 9 patches 'cause I figure they are basic...like the little black dress. I have a stack waiting to be "dressed up." I like your use of the hourglass square as a connector block --I'm tired of snowballs anyway. ;-)
    Stop "hiding" your quilting...you've got it going!

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  7. Wow, that is really great! I am gearing up to quilt some tops; I have 4 or 5 saved up. *smile*

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  8. Good job Elaine, I was wondering what you were up to, welcome back from the "dumps!
    Roslyn

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  9. The colors are so pretty. I love how the black brings out the jewel tones. And blocks set on point are so attractive. Nice.

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  10. Hi Elaine

    This is an excellent setting for 9-patches that are not quite perfect. Great quilting! I read recently that to be really good at something you need to practise it for 10 000 hours (have I got that much life left?? I need to go do some maths!)

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  11. The quilt turned out so nice - love your quilting design selection too. Is it hard to keep moving from one motif to another without leaving a blank spot?
    Lynn

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  12. Your quilting is very professional looking..Great jOB..Pat on the Back. Everytime I see the DSM...I think those are my initals..ah..what do they mean? When you are learning a new quilting pattern do you ever try to sew over paper?
    I think we should keep track of the strange letter combinations that come up below and dream up definitions for them.
    Sew Peacefully DEB{;o

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  13. Great job! This is a lovely quilt and your quilting is really nice too.

    I did the math... 10000 hrs of practice is 1250 eight hour days, or just over a year and a half of practicing every day, five days a week. I might live that long, but is that living?! LOL

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  14. You really did a great job, especially considering you were working with so many different peoples' blocks--not an easy task. Great job quilting too, you amaze me, what you can do on your domestic!

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  15. Beautiful quilt! And great job! It's pretty tough to take a bunch of unloved fabrics and make something beautiful with them. You done good! And I love your quilting - very impressive!

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  16. Love that design you quilted on it! Have you tried that modified ankle? Looks really interesting!

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  17. greetings...long time no chat.... lol.... I have left an award for you on my blog.

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  18. This came out great...amazing to think it was born of abandoned blocks! Your quilting looks wonderful...I really like the leaf and vine on the inner border!

    And really good news...you won the Wednesday drawing! Send me your snail mail and I will drop your fabric in the mail!

    Sio

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  19. Nice quilt! Love that quilting pattern.

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  20. You did a wonderful job! It really came together well - very unified!

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  21. Beautiful quilting and a wonderful quilt. Congrats :)

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  22. Ooh! Your quilting is fantastic! (Your quilt is fantastic!) That looks like such a difficult quilt pattern! I really must just spend a month machine quilting everyday until I feel like I know what I'm doing... Wow, and that's such a big quilt too!

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  23. Oh my! I just love it and mostly because you did it on your sewing machine. I do that also. See a quilt I just finished at my blog
    thequiltlady.blogspot.com. I am going to try your quilt design on my next quilt. Sometimes I find it hard on what design to put on a quilt. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Gale/Oklahoma

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