String Quilt Top - A Work in Patience

. . I would say a work in progress, but it's really mainly done. I will be adding a three inch sashing in white on all sides. This photo only has 72 squares, as I took the opportunity provided by the break in the seemingly omnipresent clouds yesterday to snap a photo. I added another row last night to make it a wee bit bigger.

The quilt top currently measures approximately 52" across by 65" down, and I'm thinking I will add 3" inches on all sides. I'm planning a very plain backing, although I can't resist just a wee bit of piecing. My plan is to piece the back, and then put them aside for awhile so I can work on other projects. (Like 4(!!!!) small baby gifts I want to put together for recently-born or soon-to- be-born babies. I'm hard at work tonight on some piecing for some cute bibs).

Advice on how to quilt this thing once it's all sandwiched up? Ashley at Film in the Fridge, who made the beautiful Kaleidoscope quilt and brilliant accompanying tutorial that guided this one did a meandering free motion, but I don't think my machine could handle such a big quilt (it's a bit stubby!). I was considering something like this - thoughts?

I used the "eyeball" method for laying out my squares, that is, I didn't measure where the white strip should go, I just tried to line it up as best as I could. I didn't use pins at all except to try to hold my seams together when attaching rows together. I say this not as a suggestion on what to do . .just a confession. In the recent quilting class I took, the instructor said "oh, you can pin, but you'll just have to take them out as you go" . . I kinda took that to heart! (Call me lazy!)

I didn't have a hard time getting the paper off at all - I just bent each and every row of paper back before tearing it .. my stitch length was so small it really was as though the paper was perforated . I used regular copy paper and a few scraps of newspaper when I ran out . . both worked fine.

I used 1.25" strips instead of 1" for the white as Ashley did - - looking at hers, and looking at mine, I wish I had followed her suggestions as I like how her white pattern is slightly less prominent. Lesson learned. For next time . .these are addictive. My string bin will remain close at hand for me to chuck potential strings into as I sew other things.

On another, much less exciting note, I go back to work, full time after a year of maternity leave, in just two weeks. I expect the time alloted to sewing to dwindle extensively. I'm very concerned about how little sleep I've been getting and how that will affect my work performance (maybe I'll just adapt, but I must admit that often when I'm sewing at night my eyes go a bit out of focus and I know it's time to pack it in for the night . . I am thinking earlier nights will have to become the norm with my youngest daughter being such an early bird). After staying up until 11:45 sewing last night, topping up the baby with milk, reading for a few minutes (a nightly ritual) and tossing and turning with visions of string quilts dancing in my head, I fell asleep at 12:30am with baby m waking at 5:30. It was my husband's turn to "sleep in" so up I got. (The quotations denote that a sleep in at this house=a 7:30am rising).

Good thing this is the face I get to look at so early in the am.

- Donna