Drying on the Clothes Line!!

With just hours to spare (typically), I finished this scrappy tumbling quilt, washed it, and it's hanging out on the line as I write this.  It is a retirement gift for my pastor. He has been our pastor for 9 years and we hate to see him go, but it's hard to begrudge a person the joy of retirement.

As I shared last week, I kept the quilting simple with an equilateral grid guided by the piecing seams.

It took about a week -- 30 minutes to an hour a day.  By traveling around the quilt like a maze, I kept the thread burying to a minimum!

By the time I started quilting the border, I realized I had 3 days to finish rather than the luxurious 6 days to my original target date.  Focus and simplicity were the keys to being done on time! 

Rather than a standard "piano key" border which was my first thought, I alternated a pair of lines 1/4" apart with a freehand squiggle about 1" from that.   It allowed me to work back and forth from the edge to the accent border with no tie-offs!!

Rather than use a mathematical approach to the spacing, I "eyeballed" the spacing from the double set of lines to the squiggle.  Many years ago, a teacher/mentor explained to me why she preferred to draw her feathers freehand over using a stencil -- it looks more organic, like a human did it.

That's my rationale!!

As I came to a corner, I marked a diagonal line that would serve as a stopping mark for the lines as I worked my way into the corner.

When I arrived at the diagonal chalk line, I traveled along it to the beginning of the next line of the design.  It leaves gaps in the diagonal line, but if I pay attention to where I begin to work my way out of that corner, I catch all the gaps in the diagonal line as I started the next side. 

Here's a picture of one of the corners from the back side.  

I'm good with the spontaneous flow!

At a distance, it looks very jumbled in the middle of the quilt.

That's the result of the five 6-pointed stars that are inserted randomly around the quilt.  They are a bit more random than I intended -- someone moved one of them to a different row?!?

Random elf at work again!

It finished at 56" by 74". 

It's finish #2 on my second quarter goal list for the 2018 Finish Along and another potentially ancient UFO averted!!

What's next in the studio?  

It's time to organize this pile of fabric into a backing for my ZenChic Bernina Triangle Sewalong quilt top!  Maybe layer it up and keep the quilting momentum going?!?

Of course, it's my favorite birding time of the year -- breeding season! So I may not actually get to the quilting, but whatever progress is made will be progress!!

Yesterday, I found the pileated woodpecker nest at the park I visit the most!

Look at those two chicks, leaning out of the nest hole, scanning for one of the adult birds to arrive with a tasty morsel!!

I'll be back next week with more ancient UFO progress!!

NOTE:  Blogger isn't currently forwarding comments to me (their glitch) so please excuse me if I don't respond with a personal e-mail.  I'll post replies on this post but that means you'll need to come back for another visit to read it.  Sorry if that is an inconvenience and thanks for reading today's post! 

Mary