Done With My Thirties

Done with My Thirties

51" x 51"

©2013 Sharon V. Rotz

The quilting has been stitched. The binding has been added. The quilt is complete and I am "done with my thirties" in more ways than one.

I realized that I had never showed you the back of this quilt.

Instead of a solid piece of backing, I used all of my partially completed projects. 

Apparently at one time, I was going to make miniature quilts. See how far that went!

Can you name all of these traditional blocks?

The blocks were joined together with borders and fill-in areas of 1-1/2" squares of my remaining fabrics. It reminded me of putting together a puzzle with the various sized blocks, but actually went quite smooth.

Did you remember the names? 

Dresden Plate, Hexagon Star, Old Maid's Puzzle, and Rob Peter to Pay Paul

I found blue borders that were cut exactly the size I needed. How did this happen when I didn't even know what I was going to do? Nor the size that it would end up?

And, I had just enough matching fabric for a rod pocket so I could hang this quilt on either side. Step back a bit, and the rod pocket blends in nicely.

It is now official, I am "Done With My Thirties".

Quilting My 30's

After finishing my 30's quilt top, I started looking at ideas for quilting. I contemplated contemporary designs but went back to more traditional ideas. These just seemed right for this quilt.

Although this design and the previous one were the wrong scale, they still gave me an idea of how the design would look.

What about weathered wreaths? Maybe a bit too much?

Oh, I think I like this design.

Or maybe this one?

My final decision was to alternate the last two designs. The designs were modified slightly, one by changing the outer points of the design and the second by turning it on point. 

An easy method to make multiple quilting patterns is to staple several sheets of crisp, tracing paper together.  With the pattern drawn on the top sheet, you can stitch with an unthreaded needle through all of the sheets.

 I always like to make a few more patterns than the total number that I need.

After stitching the design, remove the staples and carefully peel apart the perforated sheets. Pin in place on your quilt top and stitch the design through the paper. Remove the paper from the quilt, using tweezers to catch the last small bits.

I had what I thought was the perfect thread for quilting this project. The variegated thread picked up all the colors of the fabrics. BUT, after I completed one block, I just wasn't pleased with the results. To me, the thread competed too much with the blocks.

I tried a simple white thread on the next block and was much happier. Yes, I had a fun time removing the quilting from the first block but it was worth the effort to be pleased with the final result. 

And, I now need one of those extra patterns to re-quilt the first block.

Buried under my quilt and machine needle flying, I am busy quilting. See you on Friday!