The border...the saga...the fixup... the tying...the backing...the binding...THE FINISH!! (bar the label)

Well, what a busy week. The first pic is of the ill fated borders. It is not a particularly good picture, but you can see how they just didn't add anything to the quilt, except a whole lot of busy-ness that just didn't work. Maybe if the stitching had been more delicate. I don't know, they didn't work, they had to go! So , as soon as Rob got home on Friday, I was off to mums to put new borders on. I was a bit (alot actually) miffed, because I had spent hours and hours on the borders, and I would of rather spent that time working on the body, and refining bits and pieces here and there. But never mind. Lesson learnt - when you REALLY don't want to put anything in the border, don't listen to your mother, and DON"T do it! Love you mum :)

Next we have assembling the quilt. Backing down. Flannel sheet for batting, top on, then we pinned. I was really keen to try Valerie Bothells "inside tying" method, but since we really didn't know what we were doing, we decided we couldn't afford the time, and just did it the traditional way.
I did get a bit of time in the evening to do some stitching and finishing before we embarked on this part the next day.

Here we have the tied quilt hanging up, to see if there were any extra saggy bits that needed tying. I did toy with the idea of doing a layer of interfacing over the entire back to help stabalize, but it was actually in really good shape. We basically tied around the corners of each block and one tie in the middle of those.

And here those border rear their heads again! After re-doing the borders, we were short for the backing. Mum was going to use a different black, and said "why can't we use the borders?". I am really pleased that they are in there some where. They were such a lot of work. Not difficult, but terribly time consuming. The pic is of mum tying off the ties. The tying of the quilt was actually a pretty quick excerise. I spent yesterday evening running the ends of the threads into the quilt, so all you see is little knots here and there.

And my binding, and a lovely mitred corner.

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And here is the finished quilt!! I can't quite believe I have done it. It hangs beautifully. When we came to do the binding, and mum checked the squareness and measurements, it was 1/4 of an inch out up the top of one side. That is from the original calculations of what is should of been, with 12 " blocks and a 6" border. Mum had a hard time with the 6" border. she was in sane quilt mode where they shouldn't be more than a third the width of the block, or something? I like the
6 inches. I think the quilt needed it to contain all that visual overload.

And some closeups for those of you who asked. The pics should be plenty big enough if you click 'em. First we have the top left quadrant.

bottom left

top right. The only hard embellishment on the quilt is the spider hanging from the web.

and the bottom right. You can see the blue flystitch/lazy daisy combo that I put around the border.

And finally, no quilt is complete without initials and the year. This was one of mums suggestions I did run with, working them into a web. I did look at doing formal, monogram typed initials, but i am not good with satin stitch and making it look perfect...and, well time really, and I really liked this idea!

So, what have I learned? I think that blocks should probably be made , and sashed as seperate blocks, and whole cloth should be done as just that, a whole cloth. While it wasn't my intention to 'disguise' the blocks, it ended up that way, and I could of had more time to finish it off better.

I could of given myself more time!! This quilt sat around as a WISP for a couple of months, and I really should of utilised that time . The curse of the procrastinator!

Use black interfacing on a black quilt !! Enough said.

Probably more planning in the beginning stages would have made for an overall more cohesive piece. Though when I started I thought I would just make blocks until I had had enough, then chuck them together, but I found that I didn't want a chucked together look. Despite being a "crazy quilt" they don't always look good "chucked" together.

I really like that I have a WHOLE QUILT to show for my efforts. Finished and ready to go on the bed. How exciting. I am inspired, and already PLANNING the next one!

I want to thank all of you that have followed the progress of this quilt. All your comments and suggestions have kept me motivated . Right back at the beginning of this process, many of you responded to my request for black fabrics, so look hard, you will see your contribution to this quilt in the pictures somewhere. Thank you thank you!


Now, the final hurdle. A name!! The working name was Black CQ. A bit boring. I would love your help here too.
This quilt was made in response to a comment my nana made about the three of us (nana , mum and I ) all exhibiting in the annual guild show together. I want a name that reflects that. History, women, family, generations, quilting. We all have very dfferent styles. Mum is an art/contemporay quilter, nana does applique/baltimore album type quilts, and I am "crazy".
Thoughts so far:
For Kitty (my nana)
Threads of Time
Homage to the Womenfolk

3rd Generation (thats me)



Leave a comment with your ideas , please.