Getting it all together

After a lot of piecing on different projects over the past month or so, I felt it was time to start getting it all together before the garden starts to claim more of my time from quiltmaking.

Part of the reason I love piecing so much, I think, is because it is easy to fit a little piecing into half an hour or so here and there in a busy day.  Machine piecing often has a meditative quality, especially if you are making something scrappy or repetitive (with lots of similar units) which doesn't require too many decisions.  Putting the pieces together I tend to put off because it is all about making decisions, especially a scrappy quilt, because of the need to get the colours balanced through the quilt top.

Decisions about balance really require a design wall which I don't have, so I finally decided I couldn't keep putting off otherwise I would have even more pieces and piles of uncompleted blocks than I already do.  I unrolled a wadding and pinned it to the long curtains at my sitting room window.  Instant design wall - though I have had the curtains closed all week while I make my decisions: it looks a bit odd especially as it has been such lovely sunny weather, but needs must.

 Result: I have not only assembled my 25 Crazy Squares (I think the pattern is officially called Crazies Squared) blocks from last post into a huge (77" square) top with scrappy borders, but I have also joined the Anvil blocks last glimpsed here into a top measuring about 54" square.  It always surprises me how long it actually takes to join the blocks and add borders to a quilt top: all the pressing and measuring to keep it square and true.  It is not the most glamorous aspect of quiltmaking, but so worth taking time over.

I don't have a decent photo of the whole top, I'm afraid - I was limited to hanging it on the washing line and it would have trailed on the ground if I had tried to get all the blocks into the picture.

Yes, the blue really is that intense and the red is very rich-looking.  I have had the fabrics for ages so I am delighted to have got them into a quilt top at last.

I even found the perfect green fabric in my stash for backing, and a lovely red Moda dot for the binding, when I get that far.

I am also pleased with the Anvil quilt top, which is very different in mood.  I started this quilt to use up some HSTs I had left from another quilt made with Fig Tree fabrics, but of course decided to make it bigger so cut into a Layer Cake and Jelly Roll of Buttercup, a much more recent line.  The neutral for the sashing and setting triangles I found in my stash and there was just enough.

I love the pop of the red and the cool of the light blue in the generally soft and smudgy mix of colours.

I used up all the odd HSTs so some blocks are quite a mixture!

I made the HSTs with Thangles paper foundations (2" finished) which I love as they are so accurate.  So my points aren't bad, and I chose to insert the narrow sashing (1" finished) so that I would not have to fight with the seam allowances, as I would have done if I had set the blocks edge to edge.

 And I had just the fabric for the backing in my stash...

I have a couple more tops almost at this stage which I will blog about next week, as I won't be doing the quilting just yet on any of them.  It may be a while before there are any actual finishes to report.
Enjoy your weekend!