At Long Last - I Finally Have a Flimsy

Whenever I have started a more detailed quilt I have given myself a two year time frame to complete it.  This has worked fairly well in the past, as once the quilt top was completed I would send it off to my long arm quilter to work her magic and then bind it.

However, my most recent more detailed quilt has been in the works for nearly three years and today, finally, it is a quilt top, so still not completed.

I bought the book shortly after it was released.  There is no date on it, but it was definitely prior to 2019, as I made a wall hanging from the book that year.  I knew I wanted to make the featured quilt and started “quarantining” blue fabrics in my stash for future use.  Natalie Bird was selling the complete set of EPP papers at the Sydney Craft Show one year, so I bought them and added them to the “kit” as well.  I bought a final few fabrics in early 2022.

I made an actual start in June 2022, in readiness to take with me on our three month caravan trip.  While travelling, I worked on the EPP hexies and the next EPP section and did some stitcheries on the appliqué blocks, even though the appliqué had not been stitched down at that stage.

Gradually, I made progress over the next little while.  The hand stitching was great to take along to the two stitching groups I had joined.  The last of the Dresden appliqué on the final border was completed in March last year.  What!  I didn’t realise it had been sitting, waiting patiently, for that long.

It was then that I hit a road block and it has taken me until now to finally get going again.  The problem was that the checkerboard and appliqué round was too long.  I had thought I could ease it and the next border, but it didn’t work.  I wondered why it was out so much, but I now realise it is because I had pressed many of the seams open, rather than to one side.

Finally, last month I removed the offending rounds and this week reduced the length of the checkerboard round. The process wasn’t as bad as I had feared. 

Yesterday, I reattached the checkerboard round with no flaring and today added the final two borders.  To say I am happy to finally get to this stage is an understatement.  It will now sit patiently again, until I work out how I am going to quilt it.

Oh, and it will suit our bed rather nicely, once it is finally completed.