Begun in 2012 as a Block-of-the-month by Gay Bomers of Sentimental Stitches and finished in 2021, this quilt taught me almost all I know about quilting!
Last year, my Just Takes 2 Quilt (pattern by Gay Bomers of Sentimental Stitches) finally got quilted, nearly ten years after I began it!
Tina Katwal of The Square Inch did a fabulous job and the quilting is nothing short of exquisite! Here is a gallery of some of my favourite blocks! I included some pictures of the back; zoom in to see the quilting.
Here goes the sun…The lights come on as the sun is ready to go down…What is there not to love?An eight-point star I made the wrong size and added the border to make it up to 6″Framed in yellow!More needleturn…Another Favourite BlockLike that little yellow airplane?Some very well-loved traditional blocks…Yet another pretty one!…from the backTextures!Gorgeous Textures!And intricate blocks…Another look at the back…Lots of points there to matchOne of my top favourites!Sweet!Just love this!I like how the golds brighten up the proceedingsSo proud of this one!This was my first-ever bit of applique!
The colours so remind me of the monsoon evenings at home in India, with the red of the sunset playing hide and seek with the charcoal grey, water-laden clouds! The original, incidentally, is in red and white. Here is the full quilt!
The Just Takes 2 Quilt
Such a sense of achievement finishing an UFO! What have you been doing-creating more UFOs or finishing up the projects in hand?
TodayI cut and pieced 3 blocks of my Just takes 2 quilt! I shall assemble them tomorrow. They are all paper foundation pieced and came up fast…
These cute aeroplane blocks shall also have some applique add-ons.
Blocks 44 and 45 – Just takes 2 quilt
Here is the third – the bear’s paw block !
Bear’s paw block – just takes 2 quilt
I shall do the back basting for an appliqué block later, if I feel like it!
What is terrifying me is the thought that I may be running out of the background fabric. I had bought 5 and a half metres from a store in Jodhpur exactly a year ago and neither I nor the cousin with whom I bought it remember which! So anyone who comes across this fabric, please buy me 3 metres 🙂 That shall take care of the borders too!
The progress on my just takes 2 mystery quilt has been painfully slow 🙁 The mystery quilt by Gay Bomers of http://www.sentimentalstitches.net and Brenda of Dear Jane ran through 2012, and the last set of the 100 blocks that make up this quilt, and suggestions for the border were revealed this month ! I am still stuck in April, May sometime! 🙁 🙁 🙁 But finally, I am planning to go full steam on it from tomorrow, so am making a record of blocks finished
Here are three hand -sewed blocks I finished since I last blogged about this quilt, months ago!
The first applique( Hawaiian look) block uses the back basting technique. I traced the pattern to the wrong side of the background and basted the applique piece over it, turning it in as I went along. It also has reverse appliqued diamonds in the centre.
Hand appliqued quilt block – back basting method used
The second block, Grandma’s Favourite Compass is paper pieced by the EPP method . The circle was hand sewed to the background.
Grandma’s Favourite Compass quilt block -English paper piecing and hand sewing
For the third block, I appliqued after tacking the leaves on to paper,like you would for EPP). I then slit the background fabric to remove the paper.
Hand appliqued Quilt block
Here are the first 28 blocks put together, to make up Section A of the quilt 🙂
Section A of justtakes2 quilt – first quarter of the quilt finished!
And here are some more completed blocks. The bottom left Cathedral windows block needs some more work, I just discovered!
Blocks from Section B of justtakes2 quilt
So this is where we stand today! I do have a few 4-patch strips that I have not photographed, but which count as blocks, anyways!
I have finished tracing out two more applique blocks – which will probably take me ages to finish! I shall sew them in the evenings, sitting in front of the TV. During the day, shall do the machined blocks!
Target – at least 2 blocks per day; 15 by Sunday! Also I am determined to finish all blocks of Section B during 2012…
At the end of each day, I shall post pics of the day’s progress! Do look in to have dekko and drop a line of encouragement!
The determination to win is the better part of winning. Daisaku Ikeda
Loved this block – and the way it magically emerges from the nine patches. First time I did y-seams too, were quite simple! This block really was not as intimidating as it looks, because the perfect instructions. I did make the corner squares 1/8 inch smaller than the given instructions, benefiting from the experience of a fellow participant. Everything fell beautifully into place 🙂
Just Takes 2 Quilt - Feathered Star
Isn’t it a striking looking block? Maybe, one day, I’ll do a full quilt! Meanwhile, here is a close -up of one of the arms.
Close up of feathered star (Just takes 2 quiltalong)
This is machine pieced (not foundation pieced, and no hand piecing)
Eight Point Star (November Star?)
This block is hand pieced. And I did not add the seam allowance when cutting the pieces from the template! Which meant that the diamonds (with 4 angular seams) would not really fit into the triangles (with 3 angular seams) and squares (with 2 straight seams) . I managed to put it together with 1/8 inch seams in some places and 1/6″ (?) in others. My red ripper proved to be a great friend!
This also meant that my star was about 4″ instead of 6″ 🙁
I decided to add a red and grey border to it to bring it to size.
Here is a view of the wrong side –
Wrong side of 8-point star block
Have you seen anything untidier? But I do love the little star in the middle!
And the right side was not so bad after all.
8 Point Star
The centre is not really a point – more of a swirl – but I don’t mind that at all. This is my `Framed Whirling 8-Point Star’ 🙂
I thought I had saved captions to all the photos, but obviously I am doing something wrong! These are pictures of blocks from a mystery quilt at http://justtakes2.com/about-the-quilt/
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