The End is Near

That's not as apocalyptic as it sounds. I'm nearing the finish line of my brother's quilt, at long last!

In the last 20 days I've been cross-hatching the borders, working around all the appliqued pieces which resulted in as much time burying ends as creating them. Once that was done, the edges were trimmed and the label made and basted to a corner on the back.

The hanging sleeves--I made two so there'd be a space in the top center where an additional hook or nail could be placed to prevent bowing--were basted to the top then the bottom edges sewn down. Finally, I attempted to determine a finished length for all the sides.

Without a decently large space to hang this, I spread it out on the floor and started measuring the center lines. Sixty-four and a half inches seemed to be a good average, so I cut 4 lengths from some 1/8" ribbon and basted one of them to an edge of the quilt. The results were so bunchy that I hated (and removed) it immediately.

Back on the floor, spreading and pulling and coming up with a different length to try, 66-1/2" this time. Once all 4 sides had ribbon basted to them (for stability so I wouldn't inadvertently stretch them while applying the binding)...

... I hung the result on my newly-created (out of desperate necessity) display wall to see how everything looked.

Holy mackerel--those were some wavy edges!

Some trick of camera lighting/shadows makes this look as though the binding has already been applied.

In my attempt to prevent inadvertent stretching, I very advertently stretched the edges out of shape by basting down lengths of ribbon that were too long. Why was this so difficult to figure out?!? It was as if I'd never done anything like this before.

Then it hit me: I'd never done anything like this before. I've never worked on someone else's project--someone for whom measurements were a casual suggestion, not a strong recommendation--let alone a wall hanging that was a gift, a very large wall hanging at that! Kind-sight allowed me to let go of my frustration at myself, take a good look at what was hanging in front of me, and finally realize I needed to measure down the middle of the appliqued vine to get the true length the edges needed to be (65-1/2"). New territory, new lessons.

It was easy to pull out the basting stitches (I kept the center spots basted in place--I'd been very careful to make sure they'd been placed correctly) and subtract 1/2" from each ribbon end. I also put in the effort to do things properly. Ends were clamped so the ribbon was held taut

then pinned thoroughly.

No more trying to guestimate where things should line up while working in the cramped space in front of my sewing machine.

Displayed again, the edges were much improved!

 

 

Yesterday I applied the binding (made from the last bit of the dark maroon fabric) and sewed down the label.

This morning I added another line of echo quilting inside the middle 4 hearts, and another line around the 4 outer hearts/wreaths. There's still more echoing needed in the outer sections--too much still left unquilted for my liking--which will be the final quilting done on this top.

This morning I also tackled the micro-stippling in the center section. It was as nerve-wracking as I'd anticipated, but the results were definitely worth it.

The pin is marking a spot where I accidentally cut the blue embroidery thread and need to go back and restitch that line.

Another morning to finish up all the quilting (including burying threads), then a few days of sewing down the binding, and this will be on its way to my brother. WooHOO!