This Is My Ta Da Moment!

Ta Da!!

We have a proper finish!! The Belfast Bulletin is complete, finished, sorted.


Having finished all the quilting last week, I left it for a few days. It is always good to "be on a break". I think by the time the quilting is finished, you are a bit sick of looking at a quilt. Well, I always am. The quilting is my least favourite bit and it can be sore on the shoulders. At that stage, I am getting frustrated and just a little ratty. I always find it a good idea to walk away from the situation, take 5, smoke a cigarette. No .... I don't smoke, but a metaphorical cigarette. I fling the quilt over the back of a chair for a few days and just walk away.



A few days later, I fall in love all over again, and starting looking forward to sewing on the spotty binding. I always try to use spotty binding, or occasional striped. It is not that I am pretentious enough to think I have a trade mark stamp. Or that I am smug enough to pretend that I am not pretentious. It is just that I like spotty fabric. It is readily available, and always in stock the good old shop near my hairdressers. My spot of choice is good old Rose and Hubble and it's not too expensive. Most times I pass, I buy a metre of a colour, so there is always some to hand.


I chose navy for this quilt. I did buy the navy with the quilt in mind. Well, I wanted royal blue, but it was sold out. I think the navy is like a full stop, a statement binding. This is your quilt. Yes, it is blue for my son, green for my future daughter in law. And the binding is no nonsense navy. I machine stitch my binding on the front of the quilt, flip it over and hand stitch the back. That is my favourite part, honest. I get a lot of satisfaction from just sitting slip stitching the binding down.

This time it was a dark and gloomy day. I decided the best place to stitch was on top of the bed, whilst watching knitting podcasts. I got so caught up in the Grocery Girls, Skeindeer Knits and Stranded Dyeworks, that I did the whole quilt at one sitting. Or lying! It took just over two hours and my fingers were only a little punctured.

The official quilt holder upper is a little unwell, so this is me holding the quilt. I am not terrible tall. As you can tell!


These are just "my quilt is finished" photos. Like many Americans, my future daughter in law's family has Irish ancestry. Remarkably they hail from a small town only 20 miles or so from where we live! The very town where my daughter coincidentally bought her bridesmaid's dress. So ........... the plan is ............ take the quilt for a drive.  - take some photos of the quilt on the picturesque bridge without dropping said quilt in the river.  My daughter and I will be doing the photos, there will be no dramatic quilts dangling over bridges in the wild shots!. Just hoping it doesn't rain on Sunday.

Helen x
linking up with Finish It Up Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts
linking up with Finished Or Not Friday, Busy Hands Quilts
linking up with Let's Be Social, Sew Fresh Quilts

Comments

  1. Congratulations on the finish. I love to hand bind as well, and it's amazing how quickly time (and the quilt finish) can wrap up when hand binding. I wish you a beautiful day and no mishaps on Sunday!

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  2. It looks great Helen!! Is it Paragon where you buy your spots...its just I noticed some at Dargan too!

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  3. Hand binding is relaxing and my favourite. I don't hand sew bindings on charity quilts those get machine stitched.

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  4. Congratulations! So wonderful to see BB completely finished. You should be proud of this, and I give you permission to be a bit pretentious AND smug about it :) And I want to add that I love the Grocery Girls, and I'm not even a knitter. They make me laugh and I'm learning just enough about knitting to follow blogs like yours that occasionally toss in Greek like "casting off" and "Superwash."

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  5. Congratulation on your finish. It really is very striking. Love all the blue tones. I resonated with a lot of your text. I too have to let my quilts "ripen" before I quilt them. I keep hoping that my shoulders will get less sore with the quilting part when I get less stressed about doing it. Your straight lines are phenomenal. Is this ruler work? And I must confess that I buy striped fabric just about every time I see it. You never know when that certain combination of colors will be just perfect for a future quilt. I had to giggle also that apparently we have the same quilt holding method for finish photos. The fingers and shoe tips of my "method" are often peeking out at the top corners and bottom edge of my quilts.

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  6. Congratulations, Helen, it looks wonderful, and I never tire of the lovely blues. Good luck with that photo shoot and I hope your weather is drier than ours (I definitely wouldn't be taking a quilt out today).

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  7. Congratulations Helen! It’s a beauty & will surely be loved by the new couple. I too usually let the quilt sit while waiting for the binding to be put on, but usually its because I’m hoping the binding magically attaches itself because it’s my least favorite part!

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  8. Oh I hope you got some FABULOUS quilt in the wild shots today! How very amazing about your future daughter-in-law's family! This is just a wonderful quilt Helen, but you knew I'd love it with it being blue, and then blue and green the best combo! I like stripes for a binding, and thanks for saying that fingers hurt, because mine always do when stitching it down and I've never done it all in one go for that reason.

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  9. Congratulations on your finish. It looks incredible. I know what you mean about wanting to give it a rest. Some times my quilts rest for years .

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  10. It's wonderful Helen, congratulations on your beautiful finish. I love to sit and hand stitch the binding too, oh the excitement when you realise there is only a few inches left to the finish. I hope you had nice weather to take your pics today, it's cold here with showers and a little sunshine, but at least the blossom is out on my Tibetan cherry tree.

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  11. Looks great! Stitching the binding down is one of my favorite things, too!

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  12. Oh gorgeous!!! Congratulations on a fabulous finish. You should be doing a happy dance. I would :-) Hand stitching? Nah, I am too impatient for that. I stitch on the back, turn to the front and machine stitch it down from the front.

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  13. Helen, it is beautiful! What a wonderful gift for your son and future daughter-in-law!

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