No Passport Required (Part 2)

In my previous post, I outlined the steps I took in preparing to make this Trip Around the World quilt.

No Passport Required 112" x 122"

After the prep, it was time to sew!

I don't have many pictures of the actual sewing--it was just stitching square to square...to square...to square...

I worked from two corners towards the center, making two identical rows and attaching them to the previously sewn sections. In this way, I was building up two parts of the quilt at once. In the end, I would join the two pieces to create the whole quilt. The rows were long and bulky, but doing it this way helped me keep things in the right places--correct placement is essential to this design.

These was no fancy quilting design. I quilted this on my domestic sewing machine, so it was a matter of squeezing the large quilt through the machine. I did a simple straight stitch along the diagonal lines for quilting. It is rather plain, but my emphasis all along was on the fabrics, so the simple design worked well.

I am happy with the results of this project. I'm including several pictures of the fabrics, so you can see the range of the international motifs.

No Passport Required 112" x 122"

No Passport Required (center detail)

No Passport Required (fabric detail)

No Passport Required (fabric and binding detail)

No Passport Required (fabric detail)

No Passport Required (Where's Waldo?)

No Passport Required (There he is!)

No Passport Required (binding detail)

No Passport Required (backing)

No Passport Required (backing detail)

No Passport Required (fabric detail)

No Passport Required (center fabric detail)

I had such fun collecting fabrics for this. For the USA round, I bought some license plate fabric with state names and alternated it with fussy cuts from a fabric panel of a US map.

So there you have it--a Trip Around the World with no travel injections, no flight delays, and No Passport Required. Just think--you can travel the world without even getting out of bed! 😎

No Passport Required (Part 1)

I recently completed a Trip Around the World quilt. It is about as big as the world (112" x 122") and nearly as heavy! :)

This project took a lot of organization and planning, so I'm breaking the post about it into two parts.

I've wanted to do a Trip Around the World for a long time. However, unlike most of the patterns I found, I wanted to do it on-point. (I know--I'm crazy!) I found a pattern, not so much for the instructions on assembly, but for counts of the squares I needed and for planning the size.

The pattern is from Everyday Quilts designer Sandra Boyle. Because she is an Australian designer who doesn't have a business website, I went through broderie on Etsy to find the pattern. Lizzie, the shop owner in Melbourne, Australia, carries many Everyday Quilts patterns, and her shipping charges are very reasonable. The pattern is entitled Square Dance.

Click the photo for information.

As I mentioned, I wanted the pattern, in part, for the cutting instructions. It outlines how many squares of each of the thirty-one different fabrics you need to cut. I realize that I probably could have figured this out on my own, but having the list made it so much easier!

The pattern indicated that the quilt would be 65" x 71". Because I wanted to feature the prints with international themes, I decided to cut my squares larger than the pattern indicated, so more of the individual prints would be visible. Lots of math later (remember this quilt is on-point, so it takes diagonal thinking), I found that if I cut the prints the size I wanted to, the quilt would finish at around 109" x 128" (my final measurement was pretty close to that). Okay--that's HUGE--but to get the effect I wanted, it had to be done.

I needed to decide the order of the fabrics for the layout, so I pulled out what I planned to use and started lining them up.

Fabrics 1-9

Fabrics 10-21

Fabrics 22-30 (plus the yellow print for the setting triangles)

I tried to take both color and value into account in the arrangement. I also had to think of how much of each fabric I had. The outside rows take much more fabric than the inner ones.

I then further organized it as shown here.

I glued swatches of fabric on a file folder labeled by number.

I cut the number of squares of each fabric as indicated on the pattern and placed them in plastic bags labeled with their numbers in an open bin for ease of access.

All of this before I sewed a stitch! Looking back on the process, I'm glad I took plenty of time to get everything ready--it made the assembly so much easier.

Part 2 can be found HERE.

Disappearing Nine-Patch Quilts

A lovely lady sent me the fabrics for these donation quilts. I am thankful to her for that! I added a little from my stash, and voila!

Morning Glories 66" x 66"

Morning Glories (back and binding detail)

Floral with Green 66" x 66"

Floral with Green (back and binding detail)

I'm stacking up donation quilts to take to the agency where I donate them around Thanksgiving time. I know these two will be loved!

Still Solving the Mystery

I've almost completed the mystery from Kevin the Quilter.

This is only a part of the top, but I'll get a better picture when it is done. I'm calling it Cherry Mash after the Missouri-based candy.

Click photo to learn more about Cherry Mash

If you would like to make Kevin's pattern, the clues can be found HERE. Thanks to Kevin for the summer fun!