Wednesday 30 June 2010

The Back And Finish

As I was looking for suitable backing material for the Character Quilt Version 2 (what a coool name! Bah), memory flooded back to me... my mother wanted this quilt to be reversible - just like the one she made herself! She seems to have a taste for reversible quilts.

I was inwardly groaning because I remembered quilting the first character quilt, which has a pieced backing, and how I always got stuck on the lumpy seams where they all magically met at once!

But at least I didn't have to search further for backing fabric - all that was already planned since last fall ;)

She wanted extra blocks on the back, but shaped like an H, which is the initial of her friends last name.


So I did some more figuring and a bit of adapting of the original plan and came up with this: 7 theme blocks, three on each side for the H-legs and one in the center of the H-bar, with red fabric between the blocks, 1" black sashing to outline the H and red fabric on the edges. Tadaa, I love having a plan to follow!

After some cutting, re-cutting (remember the seam-allowance!!!), and re-re-cutting (remember to "measure twice, cut once", not "measure without paying attention and cut away"), I put the thing together and I did come out like I had imagined it. I also pressed the seams open on the top and that will hopefully reduce some of the bulk!


I was undecided between simple pebble quilting (oh the time, oh the thread, but oh the nice look), loops or a totally different pattern on the red.


What I ended up with is this: random McTavishing - i.e. I vaguely remembered what it looks like and did a few variations on it all over the red on the front.


Another one ready to go to its new owner - I loved how quickly this quilt came together (it's been done for a while) - that's always a great feeling :)

The other day was just beautiful here, nice warm air with a breeze, so I decided to go to the water front and read a book (I live right near the harbour).


Of course this thing had to come by and add its noise to the serene scene ;) It seems every port city has one of these amphibian vehicles - in Halifax, NS, it's called the Harbour Hopper. Must be the same company, just must! The tourists on it seem to be half-coerced by the over-animated tour guide to wave at EVERYONE! In Halifax they're encouraged to go "Ribbit, ribbit". The vehicle sounds like a war-tank with a constant hum. I'm quite familiar with it, because its route goes right by my place, so I get to listen to it and the yelling tour guide ("To your right you can see THE most amazing building in town, it was built in...) hourly in the summer ;)

4 comments:

Crispy said...

Lovely, she's going to love it!! The quilting is wonderful!!

Crispy

Anne at Film and Thread said...

The owner will love that quilt. Your quilting is fantastic and your harbor view . . . so jealous!

Rebekah said...

I love the quilting that you did on this! I think it's a great balance between good old stippling and thread eating pebbles.

That is too funny about the Harbour Hippo (I think the one in Boston is the Duck tour or something).

Katie B said...

I can't get over your quilting! This looks so cool.