A Wensleydale Quilt Update

It has been brought to my attention that I haven’t posted for a while, so I’ll give you a quick update on the progress of my Wensleydale Quilt.  I’m having great fun with this.

To recap, I discovered a quilt along for this quilt on 3 November and decided to jump in feet first, as I had the book and papers ready to go.  I also decided to use 300, yes 300, different fabrics, being five different fabrics for each of the sixty blocks with no repeats.

It was fun having a deep dive into the stash and playing with colours.  I ended up getting everything cut into section  for each block over the next few days. I love the colours together.

Time to make a test block.  That first block took over an hour!  Once I started to get a system and routine going I now have it down to just over half an hour, if everything runs smoothly.

Firstly, I make a fold on every stitching line.  Normally, I would use a cardboard bookmark to make the fold crisp, but it lost its sharp edge very quickly, so I grabbed a large sheet of template plastic that was in my ruler rack and that is working a treat.  I thought about cutting a strip off it, but having the large sheet is working really well.

I have a little cutting station set up next to my machine to trim down the seam allowances as I go.  My large Add a Quarter Ruler finally had its first outing.  I’ve only needed the smaller one for previous projects.  Also, sitting in the ruler rack was a long, skinny cutting mat.  I’ve no idea where it came from and I’m sure I’ve never previously used it, but it is just ideal for this project.  My ironing board is just behind me when I’m sewing and I don’t mind getting up and down to press each seam.  At least it gets me off my butt for a brief moment.

So, I have been plugging away over the last few weeks and, as of today, have forty of the sixty blocks completed.  Let’s have a look.

I made a quick collage to get a bit of a feel for how the quilt will look.

I think it has the rich, snuggly look that I was hoping for. 

I’m up to working on blocks with directional fabrics.  Some of them are being a bit tricky, but I’m getting better at them.  One block is currently sitting in the naughty corner, waiting for me to have another go at it.  I may have to recut one fabric.  We’ll see.

I did discover one duplicate fabric that snuck in, so there was a bit of fiddle faddling to find a suitable substitute.  I considered leaving it there, so it could be a challenge to find the duplicate, but decided against it.

Fingers crossed that I can make the remaining twenty blocks by the end of the month.  We’ll see how we go.  In the meantime, it is rather satisfying to look at this little pile.