Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Finishing Challenges

Amy reminded me of the importance of moving projects past the flimsy stage, to actually finishing the quilt. For quilters whose favourite part of quilting is sewing blocks and constructing quilt tops, the finishing part is often more challenging. Boxes of quilt tops in a closet are of no use to anyone!
The One Monthly Goal program helps me to try to move at least one project closer to completion each month. But sometimes a quilt takes a little longer, and when it's out of sight, it's often out of mind.
Such was the case with my wonderful "Tied up in Knots" quilt. It was my UFO of the month for December last year and I made a good start on the quilting. Then the Christmas season of overwhelm hit, and the quilt got buried under other projects.
After reading Amy's post, I went in search of that quilt to see what the hold up was. 
All the blocks are quilted and this thing is so close to being finished. I remembered that I got stalled at the stage of figuring out the math for quilting a diamond design in the sashing. This is a photo of using different sizes of squares to try to visualize how the design might look. 
Now that my taxes are done, my brain has a little more space for crunching numbers!  So I'll sit with the math problem again tonight and see if I can solve that, figure out a stitching path, and get this project on a direct path to finishing.
Hop over to Sew Fresh Quilts and see what other quilters are working on today!

14 comments:

The Cozy Quilter said...

Love this quilt and can’t wait to see it finished! I’m glad it is back at the sewing machine.

Teresa said...

Is a nice quilt and so glad you are near to a finish. You know, I kind of like the three different sizes like you have it laidd out. Would make for an interesting pattern.

Deanna W said...

Quick tip and easier on the head for the math. Use your calculator roll of paper and cut it the length of the border. Once cut fold it as many times as you would like squares in the border and WOOHOO...you have an answer and no hard math. if you want little and big squares this could be a problem!! I am trying to help though!! Good luck friend!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

this is a very pretty quilt, love these blocks

Needled Mom said...

It will be a great FINISH!

Anorina @SameliasMum said...

Yay! Nearly there.

Janet O. said...

Another of your beautiful rainbow projects! Sometimes the math is just too much for me--even if taxes are done! :)

Mary said...

Quilt math- who knew?? Love doing the OMG. Gotta set a goal to get it done! Nice to see this one again .

Deb A said...

You could utilize all those pretty diamonds and mix and match them in the border..... might make the math a little easier? Good luck. I have a top resting on the back of my sewing chair... 3 months now. Maybe, it will change positions soon and get quilted.

Cathy said...

I think I have a lot of tops that need quilting because a lot of time it costs a lot for backing and batting to get them finished (especially now that I'm retired!). And, if hand quilting it takes a lot of time. So...I love piecing and it's actually "free" if I use scraps and stash so off I go to make more flimsies!! That piecing is my meditation/stress relief. Sometimes finishing a quilt is quite the opposite and a time for cuss words and seam rippers!

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

Really love this quilt....bright and fresh!

Louise said...

I love the little glimpses you've given us of this quilt. I can't wait to see it all finished! Such a bright and fun design :)

Kate said...

You've done such a good job of finishing off quilts the last couple of years. Hopefully you got past your story problem (Didn't we all hate those in school? How could we know that story problems were real life math?) Good luck with your quilting plans.

Angie said...

You always find such great "dotty" fabrics! Looking forward to seeing this one finished!