Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today is a bright, sunny day, very representative of Spring which is less than a week away. Ironically, I do not have a bright sunny picture to share with you today, but instead one from the storm earlier in the month. All the pictures in this post have been edited in Adobe Photoshop, let me know if you can decipher a difference.

How does the weather affect the work at Planet Nice? Well, the increased hours of light are very welcome because the natural light reaching the work area, which has great Southern exposure, is better than any artificial light.

So, we left off when the quilt top was complete and the finishing steps (including the actual quilting) were next. But before the finishing could begin, a puzzle was encountered. Here is a picture of it:

I won’t reveal the puzzle right away, because I would like to give everyone a chance to discover it on their own.

In the meantime, I would like to address the comment left on the previous post, about Game of Thrones. For that reader, here is a picture of the closest to a Game of Thrones quilt that I believe is in alignment with the philosophy of Planet Nice.

Medieval Quilt
Source: The Ultimate Quilting and Patchwork Companion by Isabel Stanley and Jenny Watson

OK, so what is the puzzle? The answer is that the kit did not include the right size material for the quilt backing; it was too small, off by about 7". I still believe in the quaintness of kits, but it did make my brain exercise about how to proceed. Ideally, you would want a single piece of fabric for the backing because it is easier to align it with the quilt top. Nothing in my storage seemed quite right nor did I want to buy a new piece of fabric as that would not fit in with my goal of using my current materials so I “designed” a new backing with the scraps from the border fabric of the quilt top:

After a couple attempts, the new backing was created, however, I have already observed where there are going to be some uniformity issues in the final steps. Overall, I am not worried about it as that is why handcrafts are treasured. So, here are the top, batting, and backing layers together:

The next step was to baste all of the layers by hand so they are secure during the actual quilting. I like hand sewing but it does take more time; the sewing rows horizontally, vertically, and diagonally took me all week including this morning. A sample of the basting:

So, that’s it for today. I will be re-obtaining the quilt history book so I will be able to finish that story along with the quilting and binding of this project. Time is fast approaching for a more Spring-themed project!