The Best Laid Plans!

I had it all planned, we were going home to the UK for a week last week, so I brought all the blocks of my Sew Happy QAL with me to finish off and send to my son and his wife before we flew back to Riga. It was all going to be so straightforward, all I had to do was print out the instructions and template for the last block, cut out and sew the sashings, buy the wadding and then back, quilt and bind the quilt. That doesn't sound so hard, does it? Hah!!

There was the small matter of a trip to Dublin, the husband's birthday and catch-ups with friends to fit in too, but it was all going to work out. Hah!!

So what I really needed was for the phone line to die and for us to have no Internet connection for 5 days!!

Buying the wadding was easy enough, fortunately I had already found the perfect backing material in Riga before we left.

A local bedlinen manufacturer, I discovered, sells 100% wide width cotton for around £1.50 per metre, so when I saw the last 2.5 metres of this grey, shadow striped faux patchwork for sale I knew that I had found my backing fabric!

When we did eventually get our phone line sorted, something to do with old wiring in our area being replaced and engineers inadvertently twisting wires apparently, I had only a couple of days left to make the last block, finish the quilt top, quilt and bind the quilt. Nothing like a deadline for concentrating the mind :) Cue also much muttering from my husband about how much longer was I going to be tied to the sewing machine!

Fortunately I have already practised Dresden Plate blocks before for the QAYG sampler quilt that I started years ago at an evening class, so I had an idea of what to expect. I didn't, however, have enough of any of my fabrics for the background 12 and 1/2" block for the fan, more shopping needed!

Ideally I would have like to have had less grey in the fans in this block, but these were the only fabrics left that were big enough for the fan template. I really went down to the wire with fabric on this quilt!

I had to raid my stash for the turquoise solid for the pieced blocks in the sashing and paired it with blocks from the extra white fabric I had bought to finish off the Dresden Fan block.

With some of my feature red leaf fabric in each corner, this is what I ended up with.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of Jenna's Sew Happy QAL, it has been a great learning experience, even the foundation piecing (!), and I would definitely recommend joining a Sew Happy QAL to anyone.

Finally, the evening before we flew back the quilt was quilted and bound. The binding was a bit rushed to say the least, but, fingers crossed, neither my son nor his wife will notice the few tucks here and there! I posted the quilt to them yesterday morning, so they will, hopefully, be snuggling under it soon and my son can no longer remind me that he is the only one of the family not to have their own quilt :)

So, I can tick off my March WIP of my 12 WIP's in 2012!

I am off to check out the blocks I have missed on Katy's FPPFTT here and Sew Sweetness NY Beauty QAL, before I end up too far behind!


Linking up to Sew Modern Monday here and Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday