Friday, February 8, 2013

Cascades Quilt Top

This morning I finished the Cascades quilt top:
The blocks in the quilt are set "on point" so the rows are sewn together on the diagonal.

This is going to be a large quilt for a queen sized bed, so I've sewed the top in three sections.  The middle three rows of blocks, starting at the upper left hand corner comprise the centre strip.  The four rows to the right and to the left are the other two sections.  I do this to make quilting the top by machine easier.

The one problem I may run into is cutting the batting and the backing into these strips.  I will have to work that out and see if it is possible.  If not, I will have to sew the whole top together and manage it from there.

These are batiks so the colours are quite vibrant.  There will be some borders sewn on yet.  The pattern calls for an 1 1/2" border of the same dark fabric as the sashing.  Then there is a 4 1/2" border of a batik, and then a binding of the sashing fabric.  I'm think I might do more for the border, but have to see how much fabric I have.

This kit came only in a single bed size, so I bought two kits to make a large queen quilt.  That means in certain areas I'm on my own.  The directions do not apply.  Just making the top this large was a challenge.  I photocopied the picture of the top twice, and then cut one of the photocopies along the sashing lines. Then I added that to the left hand and bottom of the original picture.  Following the new layout I enlarged the quilt from 4 blocks across and 5 down to 6 across and 6 down.  Now I need to sit down with pencil and paper and figure out the borders to reach approx. 110" x 110".  I believe it's now about 88" x 88".  That means about 11" of borders on each side.

For now I'm going to put this particular project aside and work on finishing the blocks needed for S's quilt.  I also have some more machine quilting to do on the "fruit" lap quilt.  Plus, Tuesday I am teaching another session of machine quilting at out guild meeting.

There's never a shortage of things to do here!

1 comment:

  1. Hi,
    love this quilt and I have bought a kit years ago on Keepsake but was terribly annoyed that the color choice they sent me was way darker than the original one. Can you tell me where you bought your kit? I'm just wondering if this shift in colors is the rule or not. Thanks, and it really looks great queen sized!
    Gaya

    ReplyDelete