What's On My Design Wall? A Wonderful Surpise

This morning the mess in my sewing room was getting to me. I can stand some messiness, well, a lot of messiness, actually, but it had gotten to the point where I couldn't find things I knew I had.

A bit of straightening up seemed in order.

Now, years ago my sewing area was a corner of the kitchen table and I kept my all my fabric in a big plastic container, the kind that most people use to store clothes. Over the years, I have appropriated a bedroom for my sewing, and my stash has migrated (exploded!) onto the shelves. But I have kept the big container to hold large pieces of fabric.

This morning I began going through all that mess. It's kind of like an archaeological dig in there, layer after layer of fabric, going back years. At the very bottom I found an old project--at least ten years old. It's a quilt I began when my daughter was in high school. I hand sewed the pieced blocks here and there in spare minutes when I had a chance. When I finally got tired of sewing blocks, I came up with a method of setting them together, began sewing, and then? I just stopped.

There are seven long rows--if you look to the left in the picture, you can see where I helpfully pinned a row number to each one. This morning, when I pulled this out, rows 4 through 7 were sewn together. The first three rows were still in strips.

In 30 minutes while I was waiting for a load of clothes to finish in the washer, I sewed those three rows on to the top. 30 minutes!

It's too big to fit on my design wall!

To be honest, as I sewed I began to remember why I put this thing away. First, I didn't like the fabric I had chosen for the setting squares. Still don't, as a matter of fact. Second, I got really frustrated trying to get all those points to match at the intersections. Guess what? They still don't match, but I DON'T CARE! I'm taking the galloping horse on this one.



There is enough fabric to finish those triangle points around the outside. There is more than enough fabric to put a border beyond that. And taken as a whole I think it looks pretty good, even with that swirly blue/gray fabric I chose for the setting squares. (What was I thinking?)

I am going to get this one finished...


Edited to add: I almost forgot to mention that I'm participating in Judy Laquidara's "What's On Your Design Wall" Monday. Check out what everyone is working on by clicking on the link.