It’s been a very long and hot summer here in Tucson. The last 4 weeks have seen me hurrying to finish up a queen-sized log cabin quilt for my brother’s wedding a week from today in Madison, Wisconsin; and, I’m pleased to report, the goal is now complete!
When I last left off, I had the 48 10 inch blocks sewn together. That task complete, I then had to come up with enough fabric for the border; and it had to be the right fabric. Earlier in the project I dreamed of a pieced border…..but as the deadline approached I quickly put the kibosh on that lofty goal. I settled on a fabric that had circles, like some of fabric in the quilt, and that was turquoise and green (this was my mother’s suggestion). Here’s the pieced top with enough border fabric to make an 86″x76″ top:
Then I had to come up with an appropriate fabric for the binding. I knew I wanted something pink-ish, not to offend my brother’s masculinity but to tie in the center squares, which are purple/pink dragonflies. And I was thinking of something with circles in it. My friend Phyllis had some very cool black fabric with white circles; and she had more than a yard. For a queen sized quilt you need nearly a yard of fabric for a 1/2″ binding strip.
So I took her yardage and put most of it in a fuschia dye-bath; then, once dyed, I cut stripes 2 1/2″ wide, sewed them together into a 340″ long strip (a queen quilt is roughly 72″x84″, so that’s a bit more than 300 inches around). And then I pressed that strip in half; above you see all 340″ on a pile as I’m pressing and starching the last bit of strip.
I had no time to machine quilt this piece myself; plus, with lingering shoulder tendinitis, it just wasn’t going to happen even if I had the time. So I paid a local machine quilter to do it; she could get it done in less than 2 weeks, which was important to me to meet my deadline. When I got it back, it had been beautifully quilted. My friends in my art quilt group helped me straighten it up (thanks to Linda and her extra-long granite kitchen counter-top) and helped hold and rotate the quilt as I stitched on all 320+ inches of the binding.
I couldn’t fit the entire quilt onto my design wall, the quilt is too big; but here it is, anyway:
This is a close-up of some of the feather-quilting on the light fabrics:
It’s hard to see, but there’s a nice floral medallion motif in the light center of the quilt, and some angular quilting in the dark fabrics:
The border fabric is quilted with circles; and, here you can see the circle-fabric that is the binding!
I’m off to Madison, WI tomorrow; I’ll carry the quilt on board the airplane with me: no way am I checking this! It actually rolls up relatively compact. The wedding is a week from today. I’ll post photos shortly after Labor Day, when I get back to Tucson.
Phew!!
Excellent work and congratulations to the young couple, have a wonderful time 🙂