#MSBHQAL and A Lovely Year of Finishes October

29 Oct

At the beginning of the month I set my goal to complete my #MSBHQAL top.

I was so nearly there; all the blocks were made, I sashed them and then hung the quilt top on the wall and after a day or two I decided that it  needed to be bigger;

Untitled

So I pulled fabric, cut and then did some production line sewing, 8 blocks on the go and got them completed within 24 hours! I did work hard on my placement of this additional set of blocks and am fairly happy with the final layout.

Orange Broken Herringbone block

Due to other stuff going on in life I was pretty motivated to get this quilt finished.  What to back it with?  I pulled some yardage but wasn’t overly convinced by any of them, then in conversation with Tobit, I decided what would be really cool would be a giant broken herringbone on the back, therefore making it reversible.  I turned this over in my mind wondering if it was truly a stupid idea and then got down to working on the maths.  That almost drove me to breaking point but the wonders of Touchdraw saved me.

Broken Herringbone Quilt - back

The strips were much longer than those in a 12.5″ block and it was much harder to work with as it was so big. I ended up using strips that were 10″ wide, on reflection 9″ probably would have worked better but when it comes down to guess work I think I did ok!

Broken Herringbone Quilt - back

Once I had basted it I realised I needed a quilting plan, with little headspace for creativity I decided to go ‘simple’ and just outline quilt around each strip of colour!  In theory simple, but in reality it took a while, I got it done over 3 days.

Broken Herringbone Quilt

I love how the quilting looks great on the back too:

Broken Herringbone Quilt - back

The binding is scrappy, I used up leftovers from all the blocks, it saves major time on decision making and uses up scraps – win, win I think:

Broken Herringbone Quilt

I love the whole quilt photo shoot ‘event’, it usually involves going to the park at the end of our road and pegging the quilt up on the fencing of the basketball or tennis courts (depending on how busy the courts are and the direction of sunlight). It is often the first time I get to see the quilt properly. So much time is spent up close working on it, and it’s really great to step back and see the whole thing:

Broken Herringbone Quilt

Quilt stats:
Pattern – Blocks designed by Anne at Playcrafts, tutorial here
Fabrics – from my stash and scraps boxes, some from swap with the QAL host Molli Sparkles and purples kindly donated by Trudi and Emily
Binding – scrappy leftovers from blocks
Backing – giant broken herringbone
Quilting – By me on my Janome Horizon, outline around each block
Size – Approx 52″ x 64″

Thanks very much to Molli Sparkles for hosting a great QAL and keeping me motivated throughout.

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26 Replies to “#MSBHQAL and A Lovely Year of Finishes October

  1. This is gorgeous Mary. Well done for getting it finished with such a lot going on! x

  2. Lol – I’ve just read Molli’s post and thought to myself ” I wonder what a quilt made out of one giant block would look like?” You’ve answered for me – awesome!

    (The front’s not bad either 😉

  3. oh, wuuuuut?! Are you kidding me with that back?! That is so great. Well done, and the front just glows in that last photo. Nice.

  4. Brilliant backing, genius idea infact, but then I know you’re full of them! Well do e on the finish, you seem to be cranking loads out xxx

  5. The quilt looks great, I think the new size is worth the effort. The back, wow, great idea, looks wonderful!

  6. Man alive! This modern quilt is so awesome. Very eye catching. I never say this, but I want to make one of these. I always make up my own patterns, but yours is so cool. Great finish.

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