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Monday, May 08, 2006

Friendship Flowers Finished! (First Finish)


Well, at least the top is finished, anyway. Quite a few years ago, my Amazing Quilt Babes stitch group exchanged flower blocks as our first project together. I haven't posted those quilts yet, but they are pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself. After that exchange, we wanted to do something else, so we came up with a few ideas that just didn't go anywhere. I can't remember how we landed on these blocks, but each of us shared a piece of focus fabric with the others (mine is the outside border fabric) for the colors we wanted. Then we each made a block for all the others from the same pattern, but different fabrics.

At the time we began, there were seven of us in the group. The first to leave the group was Deb, and her background was black and she wanted red flowers. Of course, I had already completed her block before she left, but she had not started any of ours. The last person to leave the group was MaryKay. Her block for me is the pink peony block in the lower right hand corner, and it was not really completed by her, but rather a friend of hers (that we knew). That kind of took the pizazz out of the project, to tell you the truth, and the blocks just languished in my project box. I didn't even do my own daffodil block.

Then a few months ago, I pulled out my Sharyn Craig book on 7 Spectacular Setting Solutions (mentioned before in my blog postings), and I started putting this quilt top together. I got as far as the blocks set on point, and then I realized I had extra "paths" fabric leftover. What did I do? Seems I left off the outside paths of the blocks. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do? Put it aside, of course!

After I did the Windblown Wildflowers little quilt top (posted April 26), I thought of my Friendship Flowers once again. I originally thought I was finished and I was going to just put a border on it. Something told me that it wasn't really finished, and I sent a picture to my stitch buddies and Finn for their opinions. Sure enough - they ALL said it wasn't finished by just slapping a wide border on it. So then, I began my quest for a pieced border that I thought would look right.

I remembered the Border Workbook by Janet Kime, and I was off an running again. Why, oh why, didn't I listen to my high school math teacher when he told me that someday I would really need what he was trying to teach us? It took me three sheets of math equations to finally figure out what size the little squares on point should be. That doesn't mean the other equations I worked were wrong - oh no! They were correct, but just not the right size for THIS quilt top. HA!

I really like this quilt top, and I love the blocks in it. I like it so much that I am going to handquilt it! GASP!!!! I haven't handquilted a BIG quilt in a lot of years. It's 91" square, and I am going to scallop the edges. I have no idea what I will use for the quilting motifs, but that's another day, says Scarlett!

Here's a closeup of Vicky's violets block. You can click on the photo of the entire quilt to enlarge the picture to see all the blocks if you'd like. Even though, the quilt top looks a bit skewed, it really is nicely square in it's construction. I am shorter than the 91" it takes to hang it on my design wall, so my pics always look a little weird!

9 comments:

Ms. Jan said...

This really is gorgeous Sharon, thanks for sharing it~~

Ann said...

OOH.....that is a beauty! And I agree, hand quilting is the thing for it! The little diamonds in the border look absolutely fabulous! And had you not told about the left off "paths" no one would have ever known! Thanks for sharing!

ForestJane said...

That's really lovely!

I like the curves that the green leaves add to the blocks - and the border is a perfect pick to go with the blocks. :)

Judy said...

Oh, I really, really like this one. It's so dainty and pretty. It's deceiving in the picture because when you said 91" I was shocked. It looked smaller to me at first. Those are such sweet blocks and you really did pick the perfect setting. The borders are wonderful.

Great quilt, hand quilting will be perfect!

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh it really did turn out wonderful! and I didn't realize it was so big!

The Calico Cat said...

That is a lovely quilt top! (I too hate it when those kinds of projects fizzle...) My group only does "major" projects, so there is a little less fizzling (one gal had to wait almost a full year for another gal to do the binding... (we give completed quilts...)

Major = retirement, marriage, 40th-ish birthdays...

Laura said...

You did such a wonderful job on this quilt, it is absolutely gorgeous. I am so glad you decided to finish it. Hand quilting it will be the perfect finish!

Finn said...

It turned into a really beautiful quilt Sharon...*VBS* I definitely think hand quilting. Lots of good memories of "babes" quilted in too..*S*

Love the setting, and yes, I can believe it took 3 sheets of paper to get it figured. Not my best thing....math.

YankeeQuilter said...

This is beautiful! i love the samll stars in the sashings. Great Job!!!
Siobhan