Birthday Challenge Met

These pictures reflect the state of the quilt on my birthday, May 21st. My goal was to have the first two rows finished by then, and I made it! It has taken me a bit to get the pictures up, but I was glad to make the goal. Next month (July) marks the one year anniversary of the start of the quilt. Don't know if I would say that it is running on schedule or not, but I do know that I really need to get my nose to the grindstone. We will see how things look on July 1st. Til then.

It is April already?

Wow, thought I'd have a little more than this done by now. Well, another month brought another trip. Just got back from Costa Rica. Didn't get a whole lot assembled, but did have the chance to make lots of hexagons. Which got me to thinking... I have made hexagons for this quilt in Florida, Japan, California and now Costa Rica. I don't know which ones were made where, but it is kind of fun that parts of the quilt have travelled all over the world in my little tea can. It will certainly add to the story when I finish and give it to my neice.
Til next month.

March Picture

Feb. was a very short month. Also made a quick trip to San Francisco, so not a whole lot of progress for the month. I was hoping to do better, but oh, well. This is why it is a five year project, some months are better than others, but hopefully it all evens out. Til April.

State of the Quilt: Feb. 2007

January didn't see a lot of progress on the quilt. I was in Florida visiting my sons, and there was just so much going on. Did make some progress though, as you can see three new flowers attached. I think by March 1st there will be quite a bit of progress, because I have made a few flowers that have not yet been attached. See ya' 3/1/07

Removing some of the paper

The top photo shows the front of the quilt in the red corner. You can see all the basting stitches. The second photo is the back of this same section. You can see the paper hexagons. I took a seam remover and cut through the basting stitches and removed them. The paper hexagons fall away as you can see in the third photo. And finally in the forth photo, you can see how nice the black paths between the flowers look when there is not white basting stitching. I think the solid red parts of the flowers look nicer too. It is kind of hard to see the basting stitches on the seer sucker, so it doesn't make that much difference.

I think now at this point, I will try to take a photo of the quilt at least once a month, maybe close to the first of the month and post that. This will keep a record of how much is covered in one months time. The next photo will be a Feb. 1st update.

These two pictures show the state of the quilt as of 12-25-2006. The first row across the bottom has been finished, and a couple of flowers have been added to start the second row. This blog has now caught up to the quilt. The yard stick gives a better idea of how big the quilt is going to be. (A yard is 36 inches = 91.44 cm) One thing that I am going to have to decide is what to do with the edges. This pattern leaves an uneven edge to the quilt. This will make it hard to put binding on the edges. I am thinking at this point in time that I will put 1/2 hexagons along the sides to make a smooth edge. Then with a smooth edge, I will put a 6 inch strip of solid black all around. This will serve to make the quilt bigger and will set off the flowers better. This is the good thing about such a long project, you really aren't tied into anything. If I wanted to change the arrangement of the flowers, the only ones I'm stuck with are the ones that are completed. So, I can think about all the other options that I have available to me as I go along.

Putting flowers together with paths

Here is the lower left corner of the quilt. This picture gives a better idea of what it looks like with things put together. All the flowers surrounded by the black of the garden paths. Of course, in this picture, you can see all the basting that is holding the paper hexagons onto the back of the quilt. All the white stitching that you see will be removed. The paths between the flowers will be a smooth unbroken black. I am having thoughts of putting bees or butterflies scattered around to look as if they are visiting flowers in Grandmother's garden, but haven't really decided that yet. I am also not positive about how exactly I am going to quilt the quilt. According to my calculations, I'm not going to have to worry about quilting for about another 4 years!! When I get a little bit farther along, I am going to take out some of the paper hexagons, just to see how the final quilt top is going to look. I will, of course, post a picture of that as soon as it happens.