I may have posted a picture of this before, but here are a few more details and the story behind the quilt.

This quilt was started sometime in 1990. I mean, just look at those fabrics! I loved them then and I accept them now. Though it pains me at times to look at them. So, I think of them as vintage fabrics and that makes me smile. So, this was part of my own UFO Project. A UFO for a quilter is UnFinished Object. When I pulled out the plastic storage box to work on this quilt the blocks were ready to be string pieced. That means the blocks were laid out in the rows and columns that would make up the design. I didn’t have the faintest idea what that overall pattern would look like. Since these are Log Cabin blocks they can be laid out in many different ways to create an overall pattern. I trusted myself that I laid them out correctly and just sat at the sewing machine and sewed them together without really knowing what it would look like. The picture below shows the quilt top and you can see the overall design. Hum. I’m not overly fond of this layout, but it’ll work and that’s way too many seams to pick out if I wanted a different design. Good grief, I don’t have time to rip out seams! Too much fabric, too little time! Moving on …

Next, the quilting. Did I mention that this is king size? Good thing I have a quilting machine with a LONG table. Takes up nearly the whole room, but I’m good with that.

Here’s the detail of the quilting. I used a ribbon swirl pantograph pattern. I thought about doing free motion quilting, but that would have taken a long time. Finishing this quilt was part of my UFO Project to get as many UFO’s completed in a specific time frame. (That was a great project and I’m thinking I’ll have to write a post about how many projects I did get done.) Anyway, I used a variegated thread in red and blue – boy did that look great on those fabrics.

This is hard to admit, but sometimes quilters make mistakes. Happens rarely, but when it does it’s just a chance to show how our “emergency creative side.” My mistake, too much quilt top and not enough backing fabric. I honestly don’t know how this happened. I mean, it’s just math. I do know how to add and subtract. Looking back, I’m guessing a glass of wine was involved. (Okay, true confession, those who know me personally probably guessed that it was two glasses of wine. Lesson learned: math and wine don’t mix.)

This was the first time this has happened to me and I wasn’t quite sure how to fix this. Yes, add fabric to the backing to make it long enough. I got that, but do I have to take it off the quilt frame? Thanks to YouTube, no, I didn’t have to take it off. While it’s still on the frame, use the longarm machine to sew on the extra length, then finish quilting. Tada! I didn’t take pictures of that process or write down the video I watched, but just Google It and I’m sure you can learn how to do it the same as I did.

Now that the backing fabric is long enough, I was able to finish the quilting. I had enough fabric in that UFO box to make the binding so it all matches. Vintage fabrics all around!

A quilt is not complete until there is a label attached. So, all done!

We are currently using this quilt on our bed and I’m happy to report it works great!

Take care!