It's been quite a while since I last posted on here, and for those of you who are actually waiting for something to happen, I'm sorry, life has a habit of getting in the way of all good intentions, and mine is no different. The ideas are there, the skills are continuing to grow, but my enthusiasm for putting out there via this blog has definitely been somewhat 'weak' shall we say and leave it at that.
That said, onward we go.
When I last posted I mentioned my Labyrinth quilt. Well, after quite a few months of cursing myself for deciding on doing pebbling, it's finally finished. AT LONG LAST.. It's really finished!
I took it along to my local quilting group last night and it was very well received. We are as I'm frequently being told, our own worst critics. I was so hesitant in displaying my work, but it's not a critic session, it's an appreciation of our achievements to have our work on display, I'll need to remind myself of this often in the future as I agonise over whether I should show, or not show my work.
As to the Quilt, here it is in all it's glory.
The pattern was designed by Christopher Florence, I purchased my pattern from 'The Guilty Quilter' you can find them at
www.theguiltyquilters.blogspot.com
As per the pattern, I cut and labelled all my pieces before hand, There are only two blocks, Block A (5) Five of the 'Walls of Jericho' and Block B (4) four of the San Luigi. All 5 of the Block A were made at the same time, so by the time I'd finished one complete block A I had five of them. Same with Block B.
There are only White, Black, Medium Gray and Light Gray fabrics used in the construction of the quilt. Some people I know have used different colours, but I LOVE this combination for this quilt.
Cutting and Piecing are not difficult, if you take time and care, I had no real issues. It only took a week to make the quilt top.
HOWEVER, it took me over 6 months to do the pebbling on all the light Gray pieces. I'm not fortunate enough to have a long arm quilter, but my domestic machine does have a decent sized throat, but this is a BIG quilt. Surprisingly, or not, it measures what the pattern says it should. which is 84" square.
One change I did make, and I make no apologies for this, it's my quilt, my preference. The pattern says to take the points off two opposite corners to continue the squared off 'wall' look. I didn't do this. I left my pointed corners all 4 of them intact.
I found when I was doing the pebbling, that I could only sew for about 20 minutes at a time, the strain on my neck and shoulders was quite intense, manipulating this sized quilt through a domestic machine is not easy, but well, WELL worth the effort. I finished it off with stitch in the ditch and a geometric border design which refuses to show in a photo, as it's black on black.
Would I do another one? Not on your life, life is too short to deliberately repeat a trauma, Love it, but won't go there again.
Now if I had a long arm quilter, hell yes! I'd start another one right away. So it's all in the quilting.
Thank you for visiting my neglected blog, I'll try and do better in future.
Stay Happy,
Keep sewing, crafting whatever floats your boat, go for it.
Hugs
Beth
