100 blocks,

almost 365 days,

at least 20 posts…..

And finally the City Sampler is here!

Actually it was finished ages ago, but I got waylaid by the photography side of things.

Really though it seems to have been perfectly timed for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, yay!! Last time I didn’t have the confidence to put anything on show, but I did have fun visiting everyone else’s beautiful quilts so I decided this time why not enter.

And that’s what I’m doing with my biggest quilt so far and possibly, most probably, my last……unless I sort out my sewing space!!

Blocks

It all started with this (rather wonky) block and went from there.

Gradually I completed more and more until the last seam on my number 100 was sewn.

There were times, when I started to flag, but on the whole it was a great way of getting something super huge done without too much stress. As you can see, or count, some blocks didn’t make the final cut. It’s sad, and I’m a little sorry for them, but I just didn’t quite love them enough to include them!

But here’s one of my favourite bits………..

city sampler - my favourite block

Layout

As soon as picked the fabric I knew how I wanted my quilt to look. Not completely. But the idea to have some kind of cross stitch pattern was a strong influence. I wanted it to reflect the theme behind the Indian Summer fabric I was using. A bit like a native American embroidery or some such thing.

It isn’t quite, exactly how I envisaged, but size had a lot to do with that. I was almost crying when putting it together as it was!

The Back

I also knew I wanted to go for a reversible type quilt…this seemed the perfect excuse to use more fabric!

Botanics was all over the place and I *had* to have some so I invested in a large quantity for the back panels. I also threw in a little Lotta and one Kona solid. Then divided it all up with some Kona graphite and wasabi (my all time favourite).

The wasabi dividing line was an after thought, and a rather tiring one at that. I really didn’t need to spend additional time splitting the grey panels to add that strip but my gut was telling me that I wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t. I felt that line would help tie the intended wasabi border to the rest of the quilt and now I’ve done it I really think that it works.

Quilting

I wanted the quilting to reinforce the shapes formed by the quilt blocks and to create an additional pattern. I opted for my favourite auriful in aqua and quilted in the ditch before adding the diamonds. I went for QAYG because there’s no way I could have done it in one piece. I’m just hoping it’s quilted enough!

I love the way the quilting is really defined on the back. In fact I actually think I like the back as much as the front.

Well…..almost!

I was super happy to be able to finally drape it across the bed, it really vastly improves the room. However, my boyfriend has suggested that we don’t actually use it, instead we ‘keep it nice’!

Really?! I spent a YEAR making this quilt, I am not going to be keeping it in a cupboard!!