Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The box is empty!

Yea!!  the box is empty....


That is the box that held 195  6 inch string blocks. it was the #10 challenge box for Judy L's 2011 challenge. it took me 2 weeks to get it all put together.



There were days i didn't think i was going to make it. but once i got down to only 5 more rows to go...then i was on a mission and worked on it late into the night.



It is 14 blocks x 14 blocks ( i had to make one more to have 196). it was a bear to wrestle around and get those 'sashings' on to tie it all together. and this one doesn't have a selvage in it....all string blocks.



I thought i had worn out my little Janome...the feed dogs just wouldn't pull anymore. it was going through 8 layers of fabric at times and batting.



But i figured out this morning that the machine is fine....it just needed major cleaning from all that crud.

Here is the back


And you know it took me most of the quilt (9 rows) to figure out how to do the sashings easier. I was adding the sashings to the big part of the quilt after i added each row. finally figured out it was much simpler to add the sashing to the row itself before adding that row to the large part of the quilt. much easier to handle.

And i figured out the reason i had 195 blocks was that i ran out of that backing fabric. i needed to make 1 more block to get the last row to work out. i was in the studio late last night...in my pj's....searching for another 6" piece of that fabric. i found a few scraps that i seamed together...about 5" worth. so the last block has other fabric in it to make it 6".

So that monster is finished and i figured it cleared 11 yards of fabric from my stash to do it all. and i still have enough strings in a HUGE tub to do another couple dozen string quilts.

So, come on Judy....i'm ready for March....Bring it ON!!!!

hahahahahahahahaha



13 comments:

Vicki W said...

Wow, what a great feeling to have that done! Congrats! On top of that, it's a cool quilt too.

BetsyE said...

Nice work! And a really fun graphic pattern too!

Katie said...

What a fantastic feeling that empty box must be for you. (I'm feeling it through the computer even!) I like the skinny sashings to set off the blocks.

JudyCinNC said...

Wow - is this a quilt-as-you-go, reversible quilt? This is so impressive - wonderful job. You must be really glad this is done. I would be. Judy C

Laurie in Maine said...

That's what I was wondering as well! Reversible quilt-as-you-go is on my to do list this year ;)

dq said...

Beautiful!! I adore scrappy quilts and this pattern is gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

wow! What a huge effort.

Sarah said...

Sometimes we are slow to find the easier way but when we do, watch out :) Great finish!

Quilter Kathy said...

Congratulations on a HUGE finish...way to go! Great job...it just sparkles!

Louisa said...

That's a beautiful quilt and an awesome accomplishment! Well done!

Anonymous said...

Great quilt. Thanks for the hint about adding the sashing to the row and not the quilt.

Heather said...

Woohoo! An empty box!! Big congrats to you on a huge finish! The quilt is spectacular. Love scrappy quilts!!

MaryAnn said...

That is very cool, I didn't know that you could make a reversable quilt like that!

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