Finish Report! King-sized Dinner Plate Dahlia

king-sized "Dinner Plate Dahlia" - a Judy Niemeyer design
116 x 108 inches

This is a Judy Niemeyer design. I extended the outer edges on the papers of the queen size pattern to make it the size we wanted for our king bed.

I started piecing this in September 2019 and finished the top in March 2020.

This is my own colorway, which I figured out on Quiltster's site. I ordered the Japanese florals and the sky blue border fabric, then supplemented those from my stash.

It went onto my longarm in late August 2021, and came off early March 2022. Quilting was slow-going because I was still limited by long-Covid effects, I had a hard time deciding what to quilt where, and - well - at 108 x 116 inches, it's a MONSTER. And, as I found, the very widest backing that I can get onto my frame.

I used 11 different threads on the top, and 3 bobbins. I do one thread at a time all the way through a quilt, change the thread, roll back the other way, repeat as necessary. That way I minimize tension adjustments. I've found that stabilizing the quilt with the ditch work and basting areas that are larger than a fist as I go along (I just use corsage pins for that) prevents any pleats from happening on the back as I roll back and forth through the rest of the process. 

The only collaboration on this is when Navarre "helped" me figure out a template for the long gray feather areas. 

And now, I'll just let the close-ups speak for themselves. This is all ruler and hand-guided. I do not have a computerized system.

And Isabeau has been convinced this is her personal quilt, ever since it went onto our bed March 3rd. 

  I am sharing at TGIFF

Flimsy Alert! ~ Tuscany Terrace

"Tuscany Terrace" by Marianne Elizabeth

Whew! There were days this month when I really thought I would *not* be getting this quilt top all sewn together before putting the project away again for who-knows-how-long - but here she is!

This was my April UFO on my piecing list for the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge. I populated my list with a combination of the current projects that were unfinished at the new year, a couple of UFOs that I really want to use on my bed, and then a bunch of old UFOs from my spreadsheet. 

Tuscany Terrace is one of the older ones - I bought the kit sometime between Jan 2010 and Oct 2011, and it sat in my NETY storage until I washed the fabrics and kitted it up in June 2013. 

Poor thing sat, all cut out, in a box ever since then, but it sure was fun to unpack that box to everything all cut out and labeled, with notes on the pattern regarding all my choices! 

It took many, MANY hours this month to piece it. I had a sweet visitor come near the front window to see what I was doing while I was pinning the last borders on yesterday. She was not sure at all what to think of Navarre watching her.  

But now it's a gigantic Flimsy, matching sham tops, and 12 yards of binding, all tidied away in my longarm room. 

I don't know if I'll get it quilted this year - my longarm queue is already on the long side, and I can't work much at all on it until this vertigo stuff gets better controlled. But she'll be so pretty as my Oct - Nov quilt when I do get her quilted!

BOMs Away Monday - The Road Home

        

It's time for BOMs Away Monday!

Sharimg what we're doing on a BOM type project
so they don't stall out in UFO-land!
(Join us in our BOMs Away Facebook group)

This week I worked on my Road Home BOM.

I skipped ahead to Month 7, which was to augment the center block into a medallion unit:

And that wasn't too much work, so I made the 128 HSTs for Month 2 and put together the "claw" units for the sixteen 4-part bear claw blocks that are in that set of work.  This quilt has a large amount of low-volume space on it, as you can see by the lighter half of these units.

Now next month will be manageable for one weekend.  :)

~*~*~*~

Did you work on a BOM type project this week? We'd love to see your progress!

You are welcome to join the new Facebook group that Kate, from Katie Mae Quilts, and I host. You will find the group at this link:

BOMs Away! - Quilters' block-of-the-month motivation

It is set up as a private group, meaning only members will see your posts there. We screen requests to join the group so that spammers won't get in and drive us all nuts. 

One great thing about this move is that we can post progress any time we want, and you won't be left hanging if we've gone on vacation and forgotten to set up an auto post with a linky party.

We hope to see you over there. I know I would not get a tenth the amount of BOM work done that I do without having this interaction to rely on.