I started this quilt 18 years ago in a class called "Quilt in a Day". The fabrics were all pre-cut into strips for us, and in the class we sewed the strip sets, cross cut them and sewed the strips together in a "Trip Around the World" pattern.
The size is 72" x 93"- now what on earth was I thinking making it that huge! I had no idea what I was doing, as it was my first bed quilt, and I remember thinking that I'd like it to hang down over the sides of the bed. I wrote a blogpost about this quilt 3 years ago - click here to read more about it, and to see me crawling around on my hands and knees thread basting. I could never do that again at this age :) Also in that blog post I wrote that I started it in 1990, so that's 20 years ago! That can't be right!?!
Anyway, I got the brilliant idea to hand quilt it...how hard could it be???!! Don't you love the enthusiasm and confidence of beginning quilters?!?!?So I started by quilting all the vertical and horizontal seam lines. That didn't look like enough quilting, so I stitched diagonally across the blocks to emphasize the diamond design. This is the centre on the back of the quilt.
Can you see where I pieced the backing??
Then I reached the borders. I started to quilt a single line down the middle of the white border, didn't like it and took that out. That border is empty, but I may yet go back and quilt a little cable in there. In the second peach border I quilted these cute bows...they were fun to quilt!
And then in the 4 corners I quilted these cute little bears. That was fiddly quilting.
And the last border was just straight lines out to the edge. I've heard this design called "bars". So I've called my quilting design "Bows, Bears and Bars"!And then the binding. Since I made this so long ago, and was not anticipating taking this long to finish the job, I had not purchased any binding fabric. I looked for years for the outside border fabric, or any of the fabrics in the quilt to use for the binding. In May I finally found a perfect match - read about it here. The binding fabric has the same flowers on a peach background, and my border fabric has a blue background, but doesn't it look great?!?
12 comments:
Wow, that is quite a quilting journey. Glad it had a very happy ending despite your bit of sadness that it is over. Kind of like when the pony ride ends:)
My Quilt in a Day project also took far longer than a day and also was my first bed sized quilt. I did a Double Pinwheel for my sister's 40th birthday...but I machine quilted it!
Wow..great finish!! Congratulations.
I think my oldest UFO is about 10 years old..so you've made me feel better :o) I know I've got almost double that to get it finished! LOL
Hi Kathy
I made my daughter a "Trip Around the World" quilt in a day quilt in 1993 when she moved from her crib to a big bed. I just tied it at the corner of each square with embroidery floss. I should do a post about it on my blog... My daughter just finished her first year at university too. You did a lovely job on your quilting. Gail
Congratulations! It looks amazing. I love your hand quilting on it.
You are persistent. I never would have kept a UFO project 18 or 20 years. Good finish.
Isn't it just the best feeling to finish something that special.
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!
Holy smokes, that's incredible! Congratulations on such a momentous finish.
Are you feeling a bit at loose ends now?
Oh my goodness. Your finish is amazing on so many levels. There are so many points along the way where it would have been easier to give up entirely. Your finished quilt is a lesson in persistence to be sure. Congratulations on crossing it off your to do list forever!
LOL Kathy! That is one long day eh? :-). Congratulations on getting that quilt finished...that must feel really good. I know it felt so good to get my 12 year old UFO done. And, like you, I don't know what my next oldest UFO is either. One of these days I need to dig through the old projects and decide which one is next!
I love the story of this quilt as much as the quilt! Good job Kathy.
Wow, your quilting is amazing!! Just so gorgeous...I admire you for stickin' to it and getting that UFO into the FO pile!!Have you seen the baptist fans box hit your mailbox yet??
How exciting to finish this quilt!
I almost always feel a little sad when I finish a big project. Although it's been so long now since I've finished anything, I can't quite remember!
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