Retro Beauty is Finished

I found that with Canada Post on strike now, that I was in the last days of completion that I made haste with getting this quilt done!

I must confess at times, I despared about actually finishing this quilt due to the unruly beginning and the actual resizing I had to do on each block.  See the light yellow sashing, well that is one of those "surprise fabrics" that I don't know what mix it is, but its not cotton.

All the blocks were made by volunteers, no one knows how they understood what a 1/4 inch seam means? And God Bless Voluteers!

These blocks were made originally for a very old, long ago fund raising project that didn't get finished. I don't remember the details anymore, but remember that they were brought back to me as the intiator of the project.



The job of squaring each block up with as much 'centering' I could do with the wonkyness. But moving right along, I then pre-quilted each blocks, sandwiched and squared again. 

This is how the rows lined up on this quilt after having further challenges too. I realized once all the vertical rows of blocks sewn together, were not going to line up straight, so the I went for a continued off kilter look. The sections were sewn together with this peach colored sashing.

So, I, in my typical way of "free form flying by the seat of my pants style" I plunged in with both feet.

Now, Jenny and John, if you read this, it was a labour of love for me. We've all been through so much in the last 50 years, there seemed no better thing to do than help. We wanted you to know that we admire your spirit to rebuild again 40 years later, that takes tenacity!

Back to the quilting. So once I got through all the messy parts of the beginning, I carried on with creating squared up, pre-quilted blocks.

So finally I am onto the borders. I can breathe again.

I planned on a simple setting with corner stones and border fabric that will match this quilt. But because of the rustic folks who will sleep under this quilt I felt it needed more of a rugged look. I chose two certified organic fabrics from my stash of rugged colors.

My official quilt holder in person! We managed to get a quick couple of photos outside before it rained again.

"Retro Beauty" by Caroline Heinrichs
81 x 98

This quilt named "Retro Beauty" is doing its "quilty love" thing as it morph's into my blood. The more I handled it sewing on the sashing, it began to grow on me. 

 Now, about the FMQASYG method is what I used for this quilt. For those of you who are a beginner quilter, this is short for Free Motion Quilt As You Go.

 This #retrobeauty, is pieced together in pre-quilted chunks. I don't know if you-all understand this? 

This quilt was pre-quilted blocks of 15 1/2 inches.
Assembled together by sewing sashing in strips and sewing right through all three layers of the sandwiched pre-quilted blocks.

If you are not familiar with this technique, leave me a comment and I'll make up another quilt tutorial on QAYGA

Happy Quilting!