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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Pink Pickles - Almost Done

I can't believe it's been a week and a half since my last post.  Besides working (at my paying job) and continuing to hand quilt my Jubilee quilt,  I have spent LOTS of quality time at the sewing machine working on Pink Pickles.  I had some areas of the border that needed to be un-stitched, so while I was sitting out on the back porch this afternoon doing that, I thought I'd do an update.
The centers are finally done with the teacup design - YAY!!!  The melons are all outlined and quilted - all 56 of them.  The pink points are all done, but I ran out of red thread so there are still 18 of the red point arcs left to do.
After much deliberation, I decided against doing the teacup design for the outside border area that I did in the centers, and went with just straight line quilting.  I must say that one thing that has taken so long is stitching in the ditch for every little part of this quilt.  When I took the classes with Cindy Needham last spring, she talked about ESS.  That's Every Single Seam or Every Stinkin' Seam.  And while it's a pain, it does make a difference in the final look.
All in all it looks really cool.  I always have trouble getting good pictures that really capture the quilt.  You can see the outside grey arcs are not done yet.  I'm still deciding how I want to quilt those.
 I can't believe that I am almost done and that it has taken me so many hours.  I started this quilt last July on vacation, I ripped the paper arcs in August during my husband's surgery and then spent most of September trying to figure out how to piece the blocks.  Then I spent weeks putting the blocks together and agonizing  deciding how to quilt it. But now the end is almost in sight.  I've learned a lot with the quilt and I'm really happy with it.
Hope your weekend was happy -
Karen

17 comments:

Terry said...

It looks amazing! :0)

Janet said...

Wow, all that texture is marvelous!! You are getting close to a fabulous finish.

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

Gorgeous quilt Karen! I love the texture too. :-)

Angie said...

Fabulous and inspiring!

Carla said...

This is a breathtaking beauty! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! It is going to be worth every minute you have spent on i, Karen.

audrey said...

Fabulous work! I'm loving how this is turning out. Great job.:)

Every Stitch said...

Wonderful! This quilt just gets better and better - your quilting is superb!

Michelle said...

I will just say.....WOW !!!!!!!

QuiltSue said...

This looks wonderful. There must have been a lot of hours at the machine to quilt this.

Ruth said...

It's gorgeous! Your work is amazing.

Browndirtcottage said...

Oh My! Yes Yes it's cool!! I LOVE your color combos.

The quilting….I.LIKE.

Kim Brackett said...

I don't have words for this. You've done such an amazing job! I can't stop looking at it!

Esther said...

This is beautiful. I love the colors, and your quilting is amazing. I like the straight lines to the outside edge, I like all of it. What a lot of work, oh but oh so beautiful.

Barb said...

Looks Fabulous! Love the way you are quilting it. THe tea cups are great and the straight line quilting is a good contrast to it!
great quilt

Karen said...

I so admire your ability to machine quilt and have it look so good. You pay so much attention to detail.

FlourishingPalms said...

All I can say is "fabulous!" Your sticktoitiveness is admirable!

antique quilter said...

OMG this quilt is just amazing, I am so glad it is being displayed I only wish I could come to Atlanta to see it and admire it in person
your machine quilting skills are incredible, I am in awe….
Kathie