…and don’t quilt when you’ve just had a couple of hours broken sleep after a night shift!!!
We’ve had workmen in this week putting new floors down and now new doors and skirting, I decided to keep out of their way in my sewing room and try and finish my Splendid Sampler quilt. Everything was going swimmingly, I quilted and trimmed the last few blocks and stitched the blocks into 4’s and then 4 blocks of 16 squares.
I’ve made things slightly more complicated for myself by deciding months ago to have a variety of pretty cottons on the back, ever since I started this I’ve been hot and cold on the idea, but once I’d started, I had to carry on. Luckily I love the back now! In the end I backed half the blocks with the pretty fabric and used a simple ivory pattern for the rest, so I could do a chequer board on the back.
I found it quite difficult to arrange the blocks, this is where I could really do with a design board, there was just too many and I knew I couldn’t leave it laid out anywhere whilst I sewed it. In the end I just chose eight ivory backed blocks and eight patterned ones (of at least four different patterns) and arranged those, then moved on to the next sixteen. I did try to have a mixture of embroidered, pieced and applique too. I found it quite hard keeping track of which ones had plain backs and which ones patterned. In the end I pinned all the patterned ones with one of my big flowerheaded pins, that helped enormously.
I was cracking on nicely over the last few days, machine-stitching the joining strip on and hand stitching the back strip down. I did a night shift on Wednesday night and although I went to bed the next morning, what with drills, saws and hammers it was a very disturbed four hours sleep. I then decided to do something nice and gentle, my quilt! At 10pm last night I thought I was winning, I just had three big seams left to do…and then I turned it over!! ARGGHH!!!
I guess I’ve got a date with my stitch ripper tonight!
thecraftycreek 
Oh no! Hope it’s not too much of a pain to rip out!
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Thanks, I managed to sort it last night and I’ve nearly finished 🙂
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oh such a shame!
it’s looking absolutely gorgeous on the front though ^^ I love the darker teal bands you’re using to bring things together on the front and the chequered effect on the back is going to make it a double-sided quilt!
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Thanks Claire, it took me ages to find the right colour for the bands, in the end I took 4 squares to the Knitting & Stitching show and as soon as I put them on this one I knew it was the right one 🙂
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ARGH! NOOO. What a pain. I’m loving how it looks though.
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Thanks Jessica,it’s coming together 🙂
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I feel your pain…..
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Thanks Peggy, pain’s gone now, all sorted and just one seam to stitch 🙂
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If You love the front, leave it. It is a design element!
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I was tempted for a very short while, but it was just too big a mistake!
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So sorry but soo glad you got right back at it and are now almost done.
Hurrah for you! xx
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Thanks Del, got it sorted, just got to bind it now 🙂
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Yeah!
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Oh, I feel your pain… I’ve made the same mistake. Now, when I’m making a quilt where the front and back both have particular layouts, I lay out the whole front on the design wall, then turn each block over and arrange the backing fabrics till I’m happy with the arrangement. I then take each one down, sandwich and quilt it, and put it back so the whole quilt stays in the correct arrangement till it’s time to join the pieces. It helps to take photos of the layouts too…
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Thanks Kate, I’m hoping to get a design wall soon, I think it will make a huge difference!
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You could improvise meantime with what I use: a long piece of dowel, threaded through the top hem of a king size beige flannelette sheet and hung from 3 hooks near the top of the wall. It does the job pretty well, and you can take it down and roll it up if you need to.
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