New York Beauty Finished

 

It feels so good to have a finished project under my belt just in time for Thanksgiving. This project was a great adventure and I am thankful for the quilt along that started it all. It all started with this post back in March so that's nine months in the making. I put this together using a quilt as you go method that I had not tried before, and it's a good thing I decided to go this route. 

About the time I started quilting the blocks, the light bulb on my sewing machine went out. I ordered a new one right away, but it still isn't here. This is how I've been sewing since then. There's no way anything big is going to work with that light sitting there. I put together the quilted blocks in the same way I would put together unquilted blocks with the exception that the seams were pressed open rather than to one side.

I had to be careful when pressing. The batting pieces all came from my scrap bag, and they aren't all the same kind of batting. I use a lot of fusible batting and I couldn't tell just by looking if it was a fusible piece or not. So each block was pressed batting side down first on a piece of muslin to test its stickiness. The plan worked. There were no sticky iron accidents.

One of the things I liked most about this method is that I could fudge the seams more than usual. All of my blocks measured a smidge shy of 8" so all of my batting squares were cut to exactly 8" and my seams were consistent.

Here's the back after all the blocks were put together.

This method also made for a nice, square quilt.

The quilt along included ten different blocks and I made four of each. My quilt layout is six blocks by six blocks so that left four blocks out of the front. They worked into the back perfectly.

The back is quilted to the front by a simple stitch in the ditch between all of the blocks.

I'm really bad about not labeling my quilts, but this one deserved something special.

Not sure that shows up good enough to read. It says, "To my loving husband, Duane Exum, the quilt I should have made you long ago. With all my love, Debora Exum" The year is on there, too.

I'm really happy with this quilt. I don't know where it will be permanently displayed, but for Thanksgiving Day, it will hang behind the head of our kitchen table.

There is much to be thankful for and I look forward to some good family time over the next few days.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my U.S. friends and family.