Finished!

The Framed 9 Patch quilt is officially finished.  The binding is on, turned to the back and stitched.

 This is the best photo I can get of the whole quilt. It is on my king size bed and completely covers the top. It will not be used on this bed  is only here for the photo. I can't get far enough away to get a better photo and I can't put it up on my design wall because it is too heavy for me to do it by getting up on a ladder.

This is one section of the piano key border, which was sewn to the inner border and quilted before adding to the quilt. There is stitching in the ditch along the seam where it was added.











This is that section on the back showing the machine stitched edge of the backing.  I had turned the edges under and pressed them and fused them and then stitched in the ditch from the front. I was really happy that all my machine stitched edges on the back  turned out so well.

These are 2 of the corners with Double Four Patch Blocks.  I stitched on the front, in the ditch along the binding.

This is one of those corners on the back. I caught the binding on the back along the whole quilt and all my corner miters came out well.
However, the width of the binding on the back was not even all over. The weight of the quilt at times dragged the quilt and made it hard to manage a uniform 1/4 inch seam. I did examine the edges and fixed some ares before turning the binding to the back but I missed some places and because I had already started to fuse some of the binding down, there was not going back. It is good from the front and because I use double fold binding it is not going to come loose. It probably would not pass inspection from the judges or the quilt police but I'm happy.

This is the last quilt this large I will ever make. Even quilting it in sections, it became really hard to manage after I added the third section.  I don't see how I can make my sewing space different to make quilting something this large easier. I know I will be content to make smaller quilts and I intend to make another smaller Framed 9 Patch and I have other projects in mind also. After all, I have all those scraps to use.

Almost There

It seems as though I have been working on this quilt forever.  In the past when I was excited about a quilt, I worked on it every day and sometimes all day. That doesn't happen anymore but I have maintained my level of enthusiasm and I am closing in on the finish.

This is the body of the quilt with all 3 quilted sections and the quilted side borders sewed together. It is laying on my King size bed because it is too large and heavy for me  to put it upon my design wall. I am not foolish enough to try standing on a ladder to do that.

This is a section of the front of the quilt showing the green inner border and the quilted border sewn on the quilt. I stitched in the ditch on both sides of the 2 inch inner border. I quilted 2 parallel wavy lines along the  length of the borders and then some angled way lines about a hands width apart across the width of the border. It is more utilitarian than artist but that serves its purpose.

This is the same area on the back of the quilt. The black arrow is pointing to the stitching line. it is where I stitched in the ditch on the top edge of the narrow inner border. There were some fiddly steps  I took to get it to com out this way but it was worth the fussing around. I can't hand any seams that long anymore and every seam that I did this way came out the way I hoped for. 

I have  sections for the top and bottom borders on my design wall now and I need to make the blocks for the corners and stitch it all together. I might be optimistic in thinking I can get them on the quilt by next weekend but I am going to try.

Moving Along .........Slowly

I am moving along with the framed 9 patch quilt. I got the left top and bottom sections together and I have all the rest of the sections layered up and ready to quilt. I used to get a lot more done, not because I was fast but because I use to have more time for quilting.

Warning!! This is a long post and may be boring,
I took some photos as I went along so I could show the steps I take when I am quilting in sections.

This is the center top section. I will quilt all the way to the edge on the top (the left side in the photo).
I will leave 2 inches not quilted on all 3 of the other edges. I have pinned strips of selvage along those 3 edges  to remind me not to  stitch beyond the 2 inches.  I once believed that putting safety pins across the area where I wanted to stop would work. However I just removed the pins when I stitched up to them and kept on stitching. I did it more than once until I started pinning selvage scraps or ribbon along in those areas.

My finger is pointing to where I will stop stitching in the ditch seam between the blocks. I will be quilting in the ditch around the nine patch center and across the solid diagonal patches. Later, after joining the sections, I will only need to finish the stitching in the ditch on that 2 inch section.

                  These next 3 photos show how I prepare the edge that I have left not quilted.

On the left I have folded the backing down from the edge where the quilting stopped 2 inches from the edge.
In the center I have turned the section over to the front and using my long ruler I trimmed the batting even with the quilt top.
On the right At this point the backing is still pinned out of the way. I have folded back and pinned the edge on the pieced top that has been left not quilted and I trimmed the batting. The measurement of the batting that I trim away is 2 x the width of my seam allowance when using my walking foot. This will allow the batting that is quilted to the edge to butt up against the batting that has not been quilted to the edge.  I always test what that measurement will be because I have found that it is not an exact 1/4 inch using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. Changing a needle will sometimes change the measurement. This time it was a little over 1/4 inch so I trimmed 5/8.  This might not be so important using 80/20 batting but with Warm and Natural I noticed if the batting overlapped.

I don't have a photo of the section that I quilted  to the edge. I trim the batting and backing even with the pieced and quilted top. I trim only the edge that I will be joining to the next section as I am ready to join the sections.  That makes me confident that I have an easy option in case I quilt to the wrong
edge on a section. For this quilt I am not really worried about that because  there are only 6 sections.

In this photo the section with the backing turned back is on top of the other section and ready to be pinned. Usually, I will have unpinned the folded back backing and trimmed it so that it can be folded under enough to cover the stitching that joins the sections. I would then pin it out of the way again. I do a lot of pinning and re pinning because I have learned a lesson the hard way about not doing it .

I pin first where I will match seams and then ease in the fabric between those pins,
 The edge that is not quilted will be slightly longer; if there are not seams to be matched I start pinning in the center of the  entire edge and on the ends and divide and pin by half  and half again in order to ease in any fullness.

This  photo shows the edges pinned together; the stitching will not catch the batting.













After I stitch the seam I always check the front to make sure it is OK before I move on to whipping the edges of the batting together.

I pressed seam to the  section that is stitched to the edge. I use a long needle, about 5 inches long, and catch the edge that is quilted to the edge and the loose batting from the other section.
You might seethe needle if you enlarge the photo.

It seems as though I do a lot of fussing around making the batting butt up against the next section but I am happy with the result.






When I am ready to hand stitch the backing to cover the joining seam I start pinning in the center and ease in the fabric as I did when joining the quilted and not quilted edges. The first time I quilted in sections I just started at one end and started pinning and stitching a short distance and then pinned again and stitched again, About half way down a very long seam I realized that something was not right. I would have ended up with tucks in the seam.  Hand stitching is much more difficult to rip out that machine stitching.

On the back I hand stitched the backing to cover the seam and it looked good. But I knew I had to find another way. It was way too slow and difficult and painful for my old hands.

I did not remove the hand stitching.

On the front, I stitched in the ditch on the joining seam between the blocks.  The seam here is between the 2 horizontal rows. It looks good!



I caught most of the edge on the back The arrows show where I didn't catch the edge and where I did.
If I use the same technique that I use for binding I know it will work. I will take care to cover the seam by just a little more than when I do the binding.  I might use glue instead of Wonder Under for basting,




I am moving on to quilting the rest of the sections and finishing the piano key borders. I ordered a subdued green fabric for an inner border and binding. I am hoping we get the snow the weather people promise us, even though I usually hate snow.

A Finish

 

Front

I finished the binding on the Spiral Log Cabin quilt yesterday. I have it pinned up on my design wall for this photo. It is smoothed out on the batting on the wall and that makes it look distorted but it is really nice and straight. I really like this quilt. In person it  has luminosity which was a nice surprise. Almost all of the fabrics are floral and the border has a kind of color wash look to it. Jack calls this the Gigi quilt because the blocks look like G's. He asked what I am going to do with it using a tone of voice I have come to understand that he wants me to keep it. He also asked if it will fit our bed. I am going to use it on the bed as it fits the top of the bed from pillow to foot and hangs over the sides a few inches. I have a white furry blanket that fits like a coverlet and this looks good over that. I will take it off at night as the blanket is really warm but it will  be nice to snuggle under when I take a nap.


Back



This is the back; I used extra blocks and piano key sections to stretch the yellow fabric. I have 2 yellow pieces left, about 6 x 8 and 3 x 8.

I sewed the binding on the rest of the place mats and I had some pieces of fabric left over. I made 2 more place mats for my daughter. When she saw the ones I was making for her daughters, she reminded me that she uses place mats too and that those are the colors she likes. It made me feel that I should make her something too. They are different, I just made something up to use what I had left. I will use the green fabric for the binding and with 2 wide strips of the pumpkin fabric for the backs.

 I still have a fair amount of decent size scraps left so I plan to make some mug mats. My goal is to use up all of this fabric except small  pieces to feed the small scraps and strings boxes.