Wednesday 18 October 2017

Space Time Continuum Top Finished!

Subtitled Whatever Happened to Dave the Engineering Quilt


Unbelievably I’ve had this quilt top sitting around for 6 months already. You might remember back in March I posted some blocks I was making for this and chuckling away to myself about the working title of Dave the Engineering Quilt. No? I won’t go into it here but refresh your memory by all means. I'll wait...


You're back! Anyway, I decided on the change of name because hourglass blocks, space ship fabric, how could I not. In my never ending series of lists I still refer to it fondly as Dave though.


The design for this may seem eerily familiar if you have seen Cheryl at Meadow Mist Design’s Chronograph block and I freely admit that it started from an idea simply to upsize that one block. Then I had to tweak it a little to make it rectangular and so we get the finished quilt top we have today.


Everything about this design seemed all good on graph paper. Construction provided a challenge when I realised I’d given myself a partial seam. I watched this video tutorial on sewing partial seams on YouTube by Donna Ward and it all turned out pretty well I think.


Still it wasn’t my only problem. I’d originally planned on making it bigger but part way through I ran out of background fabric. I should be able to get a bit more I thought so I headed up to the local fabric store and came home with what I thought was the same colour and sewed it in. It wasn’t until I took it outside in daylight to take these photos that I discovered to my horror that they weren’t a match. 


Looking at this photo that seems unlikely I know but it’s true! I think one’s white and one’s snow and different brands as well.

Anyway that meant I had to sacrifice some of my border fabric to finish the centre. I have since bought some more (and checked for a match in daylight… several times!) and I’ll be able to add extra length and width before I finish. And I’ve learned a lesson – I now label my whites so I can tell at a glance if they will match in or not. It also explains, if you look carefully, why the fabric print has changed in the block between the first progress photo and the second.

Here’s the stats so far: finished size is 56 inches by 69 and it took 1 metre of print fabric! Pretty good huh?

 ‘til next time
Ooroo
Sue

11 comments:

  1. Quilt tops don't always go smoothly. But is is looking great so worth the effort.

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  2. Hi Sue,
    I like the first name better . . . just sayin'. I love the fabric and WOWEE it is amazing that the fabric difference didn't show up until sunlight. I can totally understand that, though. It sure looks beautiful. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  3. Lovely job upsizing Cheryl's block to make a quilt! The same thing has happened to me on background fabrics.

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  4. I really love the print fabric (what cute rocket ships). Good name for the quilt. :)

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  5. Yikes! Makes your heart skip a beat when that happens. I'm glad you were able to get it all resolved! So what are you going to put on the back? Or is that a future post? :)

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  6. Great print and I love the design!!

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  7. I was just thinking about this quilt the other day and wondered what happened to Dave :) It's good to see it again and I love the new name! Glad you were able to get more of the white. It's always a sad day when you realize you can no longer get a fabric or print.

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  8. I have done that more than once...grabbed and used what I thought was the same white! And I also mark all my whites now as well. Lighting can fool you into thinking they are the same. It's also good to write down exactly what fabrics were used in a quilt especially if you end up setting it aside. I like what you did and how you worked around it!

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  9. I've loved following this. What a great quilt and a great finish! Thanks for linking to Wednesday Wait Loss.

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  10. Love your print fabric, it’s a lovely design and such a usable size too. There are so many shades of white, it’s quite confusing, I’m glad you managed to sort it all out, it was well worth the effort.

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