Well, it's been almost 3 months since I began this quilt for one of my sisters and am happy to say it is FINISHED and ready to ship! I've done a few smaller projects in between to help ward off boredom and shoulder/neck pain and stress.
This is for a queen size bed with enough length to generously cover the pillows and was done entirely on my Janome 660P, including the quilting. It was a chore, to say the least, coming in at 90" X 112", but I began the quilting in the center area and worked my way out, so it wasn't too bad to handle. Next time I'll do one this size QAYG. I used 80/20 batting and will probably start a slow move toward warm & natural when I've used up what I have of the 80/20. I think I like it's texture and finished product better. To each his own, right?
I started sewing the blocks together with maxi-lock serger thread and ended up switching to Gutermann due to, # 1, lint in the bobbin area from the serger thread, and #2, it seems to break easier than I'd like after all that work! I used a light beige thread throughout, and it barely shows on the backing fabric. The backing is entirely one fabric except for the top two corners where I was missing just a tad either side to complete the width, so pieced it with a couple of the fabrics from the blocks. It works well and identifies the top from the bottom, as does the label.
The label was fun to make. I used fusible web on another fabric and cut several flowers from it, then machine appliqued them to the label after the monogramming was done.
The monogramming? Well, I'm not entirely impressed with what this machine does and what you see is what you get. The Janome 6600P is definitely limited with font size, etc, but does produce enough to do a label, so we'll leave it at that. As I continue to play with the monogramming, I find ways of making it more to my liking, such as the ability to move the letter spacing closer, etc, so eventually I'll figure it all out. I've only had the machine about six months or so and am still learning it's capabilities.
The binding was from the last of the backing fabric, and again, I ran short, so used the light blue from the border and placed it around the corner where the label is for added help in top/bottom identification.
Will I do one of these again? Probably so, since I still have plenty of strips left over, but will use a different layout or who knows...maybe the strips will go into something else along the way.
Thanks for looking!
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