Thursday, May 19, 2011

Bowties Finish

In 1997 (yep...14 years ago!)  I participated in a 6" bowtie block swap. Just look at my cute little 5 year old son helping me put the blocks together!
Then I went in search of the perfect sashing fabric. When I found the sashing, I put the project in the closet and let it age perfectly, until the time was right!

This year I got the bug to make bowtie blocks again. I remembered that I had some bowties aging somewhere, and went in search of the blocks. When I found them, I quickly sewed them together and sent the quilt top over to the senior's centre for hand quilting.
Here are some of the ladies working on my quilt. I quilted with the ladies one day and worked on the block on the bottom left, because that's where the empty seat was!
I had bought some Warm and White batting because there was a lot of white in the quilt, and this batting package said there was no glue or resin, which I thought would be good for hand quilting. This was NOT good for hand quilting...in fact, it was terrible. I could barely get my needle into it. Even though I LOVE Warm and Natural and use if all the time for machine quilting, I won't buy the Warm and White again.


We tried that 1/4" quilters masking tape to avoid drawing pencil lines on the white fabric, but that drove me crazy...my thread kept getting stuck on the tape. Back to the pencil and ruler!


This was a perfect compromise for me...I got to enjoy some of the hand quilting, but the group finished most of the work for me, so that the quilt could be finished in record time...14 years!






Here is a bad photo of the finished quilt. I've been waiting for some sun to get a better photo, but we haven't seen the sun for a long time!

















And how do we know a quilt is truly "finished"?!?!?








It has a label!

17 comments:

Mary said...

YEA!!! I'm sure you are happy to have another one DONE! Nice of the ladies to help you hand quilt.

Diane said...

good for you!!!

Ellen said...

Congrats on getting another UFO done - it looks great. For documentation purposes you should take another photo of your son with it - just to show the time lapse!

Mary Johnson said...

I use W&W and W&N to machine quilt but you're right you don't want to quilt or TIE through it.

Kate said...

Congratulations on the finish! Very pretty quilt, the blue sashing works really well.

Mary Lou Casada said...

Awesome!! I love the sashing fabric, just right!!
Blessings,
Mary Lou

The Cozy Quilter said...

Wow! Your bow ties look great! You must have an excellent memory to have remembered this old UFO.

AnnieO said...

Yay for help with quilting! Yay for a finished beauty! Yay for labels! High fives all around :)

Helen in the UK said...

I did a 30s bowtie swap a few years ago too. I made the main quilt quite soon afterwards, but have just finished quilting a preemie quilt that uses up the last 6 blocks from that swap!! Love how you've done your quilt and HANDquilted too - brilliant :)

Appalachian Mercantile said...

Love it! Congrats on the finish!

Anonymous said...

Way to go, I know how much you dislike that finishing thing. Was this one on you UFO list? Maybe seeing you in about a week or more...surprise!!

Dresden Quilter said...

Congratulations on finishing it! I have been wanting to make a bowtie quilt for a long time. Yours is beautiful.

May Kristin said...

Congratulations on a new finish!
Must be great to have some near to help you handquilt your quilt!

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Congrats on a fabulous finish!!

Kathryn D. Duke said...

very nice and thanks for the inspiration to complete some of my oldies!!!
Kathy

Sarah said...

Very nice - worth the wait!! Well done

Rose Marie said...

Your quilt has been aged to perfection!

Love it!