Saturday, March 01, 2008

Retreat Report #3 - a finish!

At last year's quilt retreat I pieced a scrappy bargello pattern using Bonnie's instructions at Quiltville. I used up a bunch of teal scraps that were donated to the guild, and you can read about how much I disliked the fabric here! Although I disliked the teal fabric, I really enjoyed piecing this pattern and I'm sure I will make another one someday using up more scraps. The quilt top waited the entire year for me to be motivated to finish it, even though had Barb donated the backing fabric last year, and I had a piece of batting also just waiting!
Oh well...I finally worked on it at the retreat. Thanks to Jacoba, who helped me to pin baste the quilt. I free motion quilted wavy lines following the bargello pattern in the quilt. I extended the wavy lines out to the edges, and where there were spaces in the quilting on the borders I quilted fish. Why fish? Someone said (I think Sue S?) that it looked like an under water quilt, so the fish idea came to my mind. On the right is a photo of one of the corners and the finished binding ready to attach to the quilt. You can also see the backing fabric which is a green/teal colour.
I sewed the binding to the quilt and guess what? It was 3" too short! UGH! So I had to piece in a different colour of teal to fill in the end of the binding.
Here is the finished quilt, with the binding attached. Can you spot the 3" fill in? I think it's on the top right hand side...must not be that noticable if I can't see it now!
Nancy volunteered to hand stitch the binding to the back and she will bring it to the next guild meeting and it will be finally FINISHED!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the small piece can't be seen from a jet flying over than who else will see it!!!!

May Kristin said...

Your quilt looks fab! I love it!

Libby said...

It looks great . . . worth the wait.

Gina said...

It looks fabulous. I love the colours

love and hugs xxx

Greenmare said...

it absolutely does look like an underwater quilt. I normally do not care much for bargellos, but yours is wonderful!

Khris said...

It looks wonderful Kathy...way to go..and the fish are just perfect for it..hugs Khris

Helen in the UK said...

Congrats on a beautiful quilt - the colours are stunning :)

Harmany Quilting said...

Ooooh I like your fish in the borders and such a lovely bargello. Aren't we blessed to have someone like Bonnie who is so generous?

Nicola in West Australia