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Round We Go [A Finish]

It's done! 13 months after I started piecing in August 2017, I have a finished quilt. And I love it!

We took it to Blyth Beach yesterday to get some photos of it!



This was an English Paper Piecing block of the month design from Sue Daley: each month over the course of a year, I received the papers to piece 4 circular blocks, all the same. 12 different blocks, four per month equals 48 blocks total. My colour inspiration was a washi tape I own and I had originally intended to use royal blue as my background colour. But whilst rummaging in my stash for a different project I found a huge piece of Art Gallery Pure Elements in a deep wine-purple - I think it's called Cabernet, and it just made the blocks sing. The royal blue went back in the stash!

My plan was to applique the blocks as I went along, as I knew I would hate myself if I left it all to the end. And then to quilt each block individually, using the quilt as you go method. This plan would have been fine if I had actually done that, but I didn't. So I got to the end of August, thinking I was nearly there because I'd pieced all the blocks, and then realised I had nearly 30 still to applique and 40 still to quilt. And yes - I did hate myself for not taking my own advice! Most of my September sewing time was taken up with this project - something I'm not use to - normally I flit about between projects, and now I know why. By the end of the month, I couldn't wait to get this project finished!


As mentioned, I used the quilt as you go method. I hand quilted each block in Finca Perle #16 thread in colours matching the blocks, with no backing fabric, then trimmed each block (fabric and wadding) to 8.5". I then pieced these blocks together as you would if the wadding wasn't there - quarter inch seams through all layers. I then layered it up with a backing fabric - an Architextures widescreen in pink-purple, and then quilted about three eighths of an inch either side of the seams between the blocks with my walking foot, which held all three layers together. I've seen this done before, but never done it myself. That final quilting though all layers really flattens the seams with the wadding, and whilst it's still bumpier than traditionally pieced quilts, it is absolutely fine for me (and beats the alternative methods of quilt as you go which invariably involve either sashing, or a huge amount of hand sewing).


To finish it off, I stole an idea from @the_world_is_my_lobster on Instagram and rounded the corners (using a tea plate!) - something else I've never done before. I added bias binding, made from Spot on Grunge in Raspberry, by machine, then hand-stitched it down - something I don't normally do... but having done the majority of the quilt by hand, I felt I should finish it in the same way!


The finished quilt is 64" x 48". It's hand pieced and appliqued in Mettler 60w thread, in colours to match the fabrics, hand quilted in Finca Perle #16, then machine pieced and quilted in Aurifil 50w. The fabrics in the blocks are all from my stash and if you search back through my blog, you'll easily find close ups of the individual blocks and the fabrics I used.

This is also my only finish for quarter 3 of the 2018 Finish Along. Hopefully Q4 will prove more productive! You can find my original list here.

Marci Girl Designs

Comments

Lin said…
Its a great finish Jennie and the rounded corners really set it off. xx
Mary said…
Very nice! You were right to use that cabernet color as the background fabric. And I like those rounded corners too.
Ella said…
It's stunning. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this method for quilt as you go. No sashing seems like a great options. Congrats! On behalf of the FAL, thank you for joining in!
Carol said…
That is so cute! I've done a lot of samplers through BOM classes -- the round blocks are so fun!
It's magnificent and I can't believe I'm only just seeing it! Hooray for finishes! *waves pompoms*

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