Kaffe Challenge quilt finished!

I have decided to call it Besos Y Abrazos – which means Kisses And Hugs in Spanish.

I need a new camera – the one I am using is at least 10 years old! The quilt does need a bit of blocking – but it is not as skewed as it looks in this picture!

Quilted (by Pam Burnham of Quilter’s Needle in Canton, CT) bound and the sleeve sewn on. Now I have to make a bag to protect it on its journey. The challenge rules allow only the contestant’s assigned number and not a label on the back.

The Challenge show is in May. My German quilting friend Beate will be hand carrying my quilt and her quilt ( a lovely hand pieced Drunkard’s Path) to Germany when she visits her mother next month.

When the show is over they will return it by Fed Ex or DHL. Instead of sending it back to me in Panama I will have them mail it to my friend Carol in Jacksonville – she has kindly volunteered to sew on the label before Quiltfest. I’m flying up for the show but I won’t be there for the quilt turn in.

The website for the Kaffe Challenge is http://patchwork-stoffe.de/?p=963

Finished!!

I cropped off the extra two inches on the border so you can see it in proportion. The three borders equal the width of one block – 7.5″.

This is the backing. With so much going on the front of the quilt I probably should have chosen a more subdued fabric for the backing. But I thought – what the heck – why not have the back as wild as the front!

Note: I just linked this post up to Nina-Marie’s “Off The Wall Friday’s.”  Most of the links are art quilts but she asked me to post this – so I did. Check out her blog – there are a lot of cool fiber artists that post on Friday’s.

Another note: I am entering this in the Fall 2012 Bloggers Quilt festival at Amy’s Creative Side.

Second border – done!

Now on to the third and final border – 4.5 inches of the taupe fabric. Actually I am going to cut it 6 inches – because I like to have a bit of extra fabric for squaring up and trimming after it is quilted. I will ask my long arm quilter to leave 1.5 inches from the edge of the border unquilted.

First border – done!

The fabric is Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Dot – Taupe. It measures 1.5″. The next border is strips of 1.5″ squares, then the outer border is the taupe – 4.5″ – so the three piece border measures the width of one block – 7.5″. I will bind it in the taupe. Wait till you see the backing – it’s spectacular!!

I don’t know why my pictures are always skewed – trust me it’s square. I cut the side borders 45″ and the top 48″ – there was ZERO easing – it fit perfectly.

On my last quilt I started doing it the way Bonnie Hunter suggests. It makes all the difference! I don’t have a carpet so I square it up and smooth it out on my design wall – which has a carpet underneath the tightly stretched flannel.

 

36 blocks joined

Now on to the first of three borders.

 

Border squares – done!

I cut them out four at a time using a freezer paper template from the Inklingo pattern. There was no way I could rotary cut individual tiny squares and not waste a lot of fabric.

The red square sticking out at the top is the 5th challenge fabric I have to include in the quilt. The rules stated that the fabric has to appear on the front of the quilt and it doesn’t matter the size of the piece. It may be a challenge for the judge to find it – but it will be there.

36 X and + blocks final arrangement?

I feel good about this arrangement – I tried to distribute the lights and darks evenly – trying to alternate a light background with a dark/medium. I could have used another light on the bottom row second from the right – but I am not making any more blocks!

As always I value your opinions – and will consider any and all suggestions for alternate arrangements.

36 x and + blocks – DONE!!

I started this project exactly one month ago.  I cannot believe it took this long. The fact that there are 253 different fabrics in the 36 blocks may have had something to do with it.

Some days I would spend literally HOURS changing the fabrics in a single block. The fabric choices may look random – but believe me the chaos is very very controlled I do NOT do random – EVER!

While I was working on the blocks this was my spare parts department. These are the bits I had left over. I can use some of them for the 132  1.5 inch squares for the inner border.

x and + blocks # 26-30

I hope to finish the last 6 blocks tomorrow!

x and + block # 25

The last eleven blocks won’t take too long – they are already almost completely assembled – only two seams on each block – and voilá – all 36 done!