Category Archives: Finished 2015

Finally finished it. This one was begun on the Ballan Retreat and adapted from a class pattern by Pauline Baber at Patchworks Unlimited.

Strip sets laid out on the floor.

Varying widths of strips of Kaffe Fasset fabrics were sewn to a wash away interfacing, using the flip and sew method. Trimmed back to a uniform rectangular shape, the original pattern had them laid out in a chevron row. I thought it could have a better visual design by staggering the blocks, so laid them out on the floor. You know when you get that niggly feeling that it’s not quite right, (that’s usually when a project goes into the UFO pile), so I walked around it, and then went away from it for a while.

A fellow Pascoe Patcher (Sue C)’s passing comment, about Kaffe Fasset fabrics always looking good against black, led to the ‘aha’ moment! So off to the Millrose Cottage next door for some black fabric. So that’s where it stopped at Retreat.

Back home, of course work and normal activity slows down the sewing so it took a while to get back to working on this project (amongst others). How far apart to separate the rectangles, and stagger them up or down, was decided by using Jinny Beyers Golden Gauge Calipers – what a neat gadget. It takes the guess work out of proportions and consequently there is no subconscious niggle when viewing the quilt, that the spacing is not quite right.

Jinny Beyer’s Golden Gauge Calipers

Added a small rectangle to the top or bottom of each rectangle, then a sashing in between to join them together, followed by a border all around. As it is a dark top, a grey wadding/batting was needed.

Grey wadding for the dark top instead of white.

What quilting design to use for this piece was a challenge. With a strong geometric and straight line pattern nothing curved or floral would suit it, so what to do? As Deb Layt says, ‘Let the quilt tell you’, so over a few days of just looking at it came the decision to extend some of the straight lines from the stripes out to the edges. Along the top border going in one direction, and on the lower border, going the opposite direction with nothing crossing over.

Bohn Chalk Pencil, small ruler, and fabric eraser.

Using a chalk pencil to mark the quilt, and sewing with Wonderfil’s Spagetti 12wt black thread on a black fabric, even under lights, takes concentration.

Chalk quilting lines.

Binding done … and it’s finished! Although originally a table runner, DH thought it looked better as a wall hanging – so now there’s a hanging sleeve to put on – if only he had said that before I did the binding! Anyway, it’s another one to tick off the list!

Completed quilt.

I rather like this one, bright and bold, hope you do too.