Challenge 2017/18 - # 30, Asian Stack-n-Whack

I really have been busy finishing quilts, but I've neglected to write and post the blogs of my accomplishments. I'm going to try to rectify that with a blast this week of quilts #30, #31, #32 and possibly quilt #33. Let's see how well I do!

The Asian Stack-n-Whack quilt was the result of a class I took in the early 2000s. It was from the book Magic Stack-n-Whack quilts by Bethany S. Reynolds.

I went to the class with a friend and she pieced and hand quilted a beautiful poppy quilt. I put mine away and didn't complete it until now for a number of reasons.

The quality of the instruction was poor. As a teacher, I often take classes, not to learn new techniques, but to observe the teacher and learn from him/her. I am very fortunate that I can often learn something by reading the text or looking at the images. But I take classes because I want to learn those little insights that only someone experienced with the technique or pattern can teach.

At the beginning of this class I felt that I had missed something. Almost like there was a pre-class get together or something. Everyone came into the classroom and got started on their project. The teacher walked around and chatted. When she got to me, I was waiting for the class to start and get some instruction. I asked if I had missed something and she informed me that "no, just to turn to the page for my project and start working. She later wondered by and commented that I knew what I was doing....and walked away. Now, I am an experienced sewer/quilter and she knew that I was also a teacher, but I was there to learn from her, not the just the book. So, even though now that the quilt is done, and I do have good memories of sewing with my friend, I wasn't in a rush to come back to this quilt and get it finished.

The focus fabric was a lovely rich red Asian print. I paired it with a mottled gold and a dark navy. I love how the blocks jump off the background.

The blocks were set on point, so I had lots of bias edges. After a few years, I pulled out the blocks and put them together with a simple navy sashing and connecting triangles.

In the image above, I've drawn in yellow the seams in the sashing. I always use corner posts so that my sashing and block strips match perfectly.

Then I needed to find a place large enough to lay out the quilt and measure the borders. The quilt got put away for a while! I pulled the quilt out again and measured the fabric for the borders, cut the strips and sewed the strips together. Then put the quilt away some more!

I finally realized "enough was enough" and forced myself to get this project done! The quilt top was complete and I even cut, sewed and pressed the binding. Then tucked away again because I didn't have a piece of fabric large enough for the backing. I found this beautiful extra wide backing at Pinheads Quilting Company in Airdrie. it's Color Weave Wide Back from P&B Textiles and comes in light grey, purple, navy blue and light teal.

Finally with backing in place and batting ready, I loaded the quilt. At this point it's a matter of JUST GETTING THIS THING DONE!, so I chose a simple edge to edge design and used my Handi Quilter Pro-Stitcher to quilt an all over design. I used the "Ribbon and Feathers design that I downloaded from Intelligent Quilting. I used WonderFil's Master Quilter color #52, Dark Blue to quilt the top and WonderFil's DecoBob #301, Navy in the bobbon.

I'm pleased with the finished result. This is a smaller quilt than I usually make for beds, but it will fit nicely in one of our spared bedrooms on the double bed. The quilt measures 78" wide and 102" long. The blocks are 13 1/2" finished (weird measurement I know!) and the sashing measures 2 1/2" finished.

The quilt is done and I'm please to say I'm catching up on my Challenge 2017/18.