I am loving how this quilt is going to look. It is a good thing that I love it because making this quilt has been far more work that I imagined. Last night I was sewing together the 8 dish blocks. I have just two to go and I will have all 25 blocks put together. The block is a 20" square.
The quilt will be king size, 5 blocks by 5 blocks or 100" x 100". I have to decide if I will add a border at the end, to add a few extra inches for more to hang over the sides.
That is the stack of two dish units that I was working on this week - I made these units and then pieced the blocks. These units are 10" square.
Each of these blocks has 20 coloured fabrics and two background pieces and 22 seams. To sew the larger block together that is 2 more seams, so 24 seams times 25 blocks, or 600 seams, before you add the eyes or put the blocks together. No wonder this quilt is taking a long while.
I am going to appliqué the eyes in. The pattern I am roughly following from the book Quilt Romance by K. Fassett instructed one to piece the eyes in as you pieced the 2 dish units together. But I could not manage that nicely without hand sewing them and I figured I would rather appliqué if I was hand sewing.
I did use my no pin method of sewing curves (here is the link to my post with the video) for adding the backgrounds to the dish units. I was able to chain piece them, which was good as there were 200 dish units to add background to.
A close up shows that I am not bad at the appliqué but there is substantial room for improvement. I have 100 to do so hopefully that will be enough to perfect this technique.
I left the paper piecing papers on the dish units. I did pull of the parts of the paper that would have fallen in the seams as I joined the blocks, which made putting the blocks together a bit slower than usual. But since these blocks are full of bias edges and I will be handling them a lot to appliqué, I have kept the papers in to protect it all from too much stretching. It also gives me a nice flat surface to appliqué onto.
Photos, however, will show the appearance of some puffiness in the background but that will all disappear when the papers are finally removed. By the way, I know this from experience, remember when Shine looked like a fried egg?
I quickly re-learned to appliqué by reading up on it in Sarah Fielke's book Hand Quilted with Love and by watching her great video which is on Youtube here. It is worth a look, it is only a couple of minutes and shows a great method for achieving nicely curved edges for the appliqué.
I have a fairly good idea as to how I would like to see this quilt quilted but I don't think I will be able to do that on my home machine because it is just too big. I am debating, should I go and learn how to long arm quilt at the local studio and rent time on a machine to quilt it, or should I chicken out and send it to a pro?
There has been some other sewing going on here, but I will show that later, hopefully tomorrow. You can always follow me on instagram if you cannot wait to see.
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in Canada and is a day off for many, including me.
Best,
Leanne
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36 comments:
Its such a fantastic amount of work there! See how you feel when the quilt top is finished - you may feel a new spurt of energy and a desire to learn to quilt it yourself, or you might just be knackered and want it done... lol
Wooohoo! It's so good to see this coming together, I know you've been working on it for quite a while. :)
I also leave the paper on for as long as I can when I'm doing paper piecing with bias. It makes things look weird, but you're right, it smooths right out when the paper comes off. :) Beautiful work, as always!
Good grief.. That's a lot of work! But luckily the end result is totally worth it. It looks great :)
LOVE THIS ~ there is a reason pickle dish never even got started around here...haha but i did complete a kingsize paper pieced mariners compass once a long time ago...let me know if you want the pattern and i think you would be a natural on long arming this yourself ~ you r a very talented girl xoxo
Pretty cool color combo. It does look like a lot of work. Well done!
This quilt is going to be sensational Leanne. What an incredible amount of piecing - I would never have been able to get started if I'd done all that Math beforehand!
I could be wrong, but I think you would really regret it if you were to let anyone else put a stitch on this masterpiece. A massive job to quilt it, but you can do it. x
It's amazing Leanne, well worth all that work!
This is looking great! Well worth the time and effort...
It looks incredible! I love that you're doing applique too, so worth all that work. It will be a sensational and very special quilt!
Love how this has turned out! FYI I quilted a king size quilt on my Janome. It took some time and patience. I think you should rent time on the long arm, can't wait to see the end result.
Wowza!! Well after all your hardwork, you could go either way - quilt it yourself and take ALL the glory, or pat yourself on the back and let someone-else take the final strain! Helpful eh!
Wow, some amazing work gone into this, can't wait to see it finished, good luck with the applique!
This really IS something else. Downright beautiful and I appreciate all your time, patience, and still to make it happen. wow.
Your pickle dish is really looking great. Have you thought about doing machine appliqué? The method I use is invisible, not that heavy thread thing, which also has its place. I iron the piece over a piece of freezer paper, shiny side UP, and the freezer paper can catch the edges. Then using an invisible thread, I zig-zag it on. Your challenge will be dealing with the bulk of the quilt--I assume, though, that you are appliquéing them before sewing all the blocks together, right?
I made a king-sized quilt for my son and there was not any question about who would do the quilting--it was my quilter, Cathy (who does ship if you need someone good). I would probably never have finished up the quilt if I'd had to do it myself--either way (HSM or rented long arm). I love the professional touch she gives my quilts.
Anyway, Bravo! to you on getting this far.
Elizabeth
Wow Leanne, this is looking great. If I had a chance to rent time on a long arm I would jump at it, so that's what I think you should do. It will be a great feeling to know that you did all the work on this quilt yourself.
This is the neatest quilt Leanne
That is looking really lovely, Pickle Dish is on my bucket list. I don't know what sort of machine you have but I have not long finished a 98" square quilt on my Bernina 750QE, it was hard work and not easy but I did it, it also depends on what sort of quilting you are considering. I had my quilt machine basted by a long arm quilter near me, it made it much easier to handle the quilt while quilting.
Your pickled dish is looking lovely - I'm not a skilled quilter so I still chicken out and go to a pro for long arm stuff, especially if the quilt is large and has taken a lot of time to make. But if you have the time to learn a new skill ...
Just hopped over to see your tut on curved piecing - the heaven opened and the angels sung! I have a pattern I want to try in 2014 using curved piecing and I will give your method a go for sure!
Very beautiful. This quilt is on my bucket list. i will have to remember the appliqueing of the eyes. I wasn't sure if I could tackle the piecing of them. You inspire me to start mine soon!
wow - this is a huge project but it will look amazing in the end :-)
Love how this is turning out.
OMG, this is such a labour intensive quilt, but the result is so worth it! I mostly chicken out on the quilting of big quilts and bring them to a professional Long Arm quilter!
This quilt is incredibly beautiful and I love seeing it grow. The colours remind me of a day at the beach. I'm already looking forward to seeing it completed.
It's a labour of love but it sure will be amazing and huge! I can't wait to see it finished too but will remain patient :)
Have a great day off, I think I would have chosen applique too, it's a dream with the foil technique :)
Tin foil! Well, that is cool. That really is a great quilt you are making. colour, design, piecing.
This is going to be a gorgeous quilt! Love the design!
Wow, that's an outstanding quilt! So much work, but you'll really love seeing it when it's done.
I've been waiting to see your progress on the Pickles and it is BEAUTIFUL!
Leanne, the time, effort and love going into this quilt is completely apparent. It is absolutely amazing and will be fully loved when its finished. Keep stitching!
Is learning to long arm something that you'd want to do at some point anyway? Because if so I'd go for it. What better excuse to try it out than this masterpiece? If it's not something you're excited about though, I'd send it out for quilting. If you've loved the process this far it would be a shame to spend time working on this and not loving it.
So much love and effort. It's a beautiful quilt Leanne!
This is a stunner!
breathtaking! It is a beautiful quilt already and so much work on your behalf, amazing.
yum, yum, yum! that is just a stunner! and inspiring!!!
I came over all faint at the 600 seams, even before you mentioned the applique! Still, it looks fab :o)
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