Flowering Snowball Top & Back

Sunday was a nice day. It was Mother’s Day and, though nobody in my house said anything specifically, I did whatever I wanted and didn’t have to do too many chores. I received a depressing, if very true card and an iTunes gift card from the Young Man and then spent the rest of the day finishing the Flowering Snowball. Not finishing as in quilted and bound, but finishing the top and the back.

Flowering Snowball top
Flowering Snowball top

So, the top, back and binding for the Flowering Snowball are all done and will be sent off to the quilter soon.

I am pretty pleased with the top. Since the project spanned several years, some of the fabrics are fabrics that I would not choose to work with now. Also, since I wanted this to be a scrap quilt, I should have stuck to using each foreground fabric only once.

Still, none of the fabrics jump out and demand attention and the variety of fabrics is significant, so there is a lot to look at.

Of course, I can think of things I would do differently if I did the quilt again and the VIMH#1 is musing about making one on the machine and color schemes while VIMH#2 is getting ready to slap her. I have plenty of projects on the design wall that need attention before I can circle back and make another one of these.

I have to admit that after I started chunking the top, I thought that I could have made more blocks so that the center would be wider. I was thinking that two more rows of blocks down the center would be great. I am not doing it. What I have is enough and I will think about this as a lesson and carry it forward.

Flowering Snowball back
Flowering Snowball back

I am doing backs in a little different way now. I decided that the large Philip Jacobs and Martha Negley prints I love so much would be great backs. I am taking some of the giant pieces I bought recently and putting them on the backs. I am still committed to piecing my backs, but am taking a break from tiny pieces. I am trying to use larger pieces. This makes making the backs much faster to piece. It also means that those large prints are shown off to their best advantage.

In this case, I tried to pick fabrics that went with the Martha Negley print and, further, with each other. I ended up with a very pink back.

the librarian in me has to tell you that I called the pattern “Cross Blocks” until I found that Barbara Brackman had cataloged it. In EQ7, the notecard lists it as “Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns  #3081 – Aunt Kate 7/65.” It is from the Classic Pieced, Orange Peel family.

The Sunday Stash Report (a la Pam at Hip to be a Square podcast) is 8 yards. More on that later.

I can’t believe that this approximately 6 year project is finally done. this means that I am down to 20 projects which need serious work. Some of the 6 are still at the quilter or need to be bound, but I consider this to be good progress.

I don’t know what project is next. I’ll have to work on the Flower Sugar Hexagons again just to get some more of them sewn and added. I also have some blocks to make for the A-B-C Challenge.

Nota bene: the WordPress media uploader has not cooperating. I have been having trouble with it for the past few days so I added the photo of the top, but it is large. If I can make it smaller, I will.