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