New Orleans House Project

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

The Big Blue Monster

One of the projects I am aiming to finish this year is a blue and white scrap quilt I planned with my guest room bed in mind.  The guest room never seems to have a decorating scheme or quilts of its own - maybe because my kids keep moving home and setting up camp in there!

Back in 2014, the guest room was vacant, so I decided to make a quilt for that room.  The room is painted blue, so I knew a blue and white quilt would be perfect.  I decided to make Sawtooth Star and Uneven 9-patch blocks, inspired by a quilt on Barbara Brackman's website.  I cut parts and pieces from my very large collection of blue fabrics and used a white on white fabric for the background.

My original plan was for 100 eight inch blocks.  When I reached that goal, I decided the quilt wasn't big enough and added more blocks until I had enough for 11 rows by 11 rows.

Last weekend I started pinning the blocks to the design wall.  I chose an uneven number of rows so there would be a Sawtooth Star block in each corner.  

Once I had all the blocks pinned up, I did the math and decided the quilt STILL wasn't big enough for a queen-sized bed.

Fortunately, I still had my cutting instructions, so I quickly cut and pieced another row of blocks, making the quilt 12 x 11, or 96 inches by 88 inches.

I've dubbed the quilt the Big Blue Monster because it fills the design wall and I'm feeling overwhelmed about stitching all those 8 inch blocks together!  I didn't even add the new row to the design wall because I'd have to climb up and down the step-stool or crawl on my knees to get it pinned up.

If I were staying home this weekend (Memorial Day observance in the United States), I could probably get lots of stitching done.  I'm off to Florida to visit family, though, so all those blocks will just have to chill until I get back.  This project has been underway since 2014, so I guess it can wait a little longer!