And I have this tremendous sense of relief as a result, as if a boulder I’ve been carrying has been off-loaded.
“Happy” is the “36-Ring Circus” designed by Joanne Lewis. The pattern and template kit are at the Paper Pieces web site. Enough said with that information: I’m done whining.
I started this English Paper Piecing project in June of 2018. That’s SIX YEARS for heaven’s sake. There are SO MANY tiny pieces, and I spent COUNTLESS hours prepping all the templates. Plus, sewing all the curves was so, so hard. Most had to be done with a flat-back stitch, which is hard to do in an unwieldy big quilt. I used up a whole roll of artist tape along the way to get the curves to stay put properly while I sewed each block together and each row into the quilt.
The block centers are all fussy cut Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society. The rings are solid pastels, and the ring centers and the 4-patches between the rings are all dark solids. The outer border of dark fabrics squares this quilt off nicely.
Plus, this past year I decided to HAND QUILT it using lots of colors–dark colors in the dark fabrics and light colors in the light colors–and I’m actually not sorry about that decision as it has provided many hours in the last six or so months of contemplative stitching, though some of this work was also hard as when I made this quilt I didn’t trim back seams to a short 1/4-inch and that made the hand quilting near seam edges hard enough that I had to wander stitching lines away from them.
BUT, SHE IS DONE and has been washed and dried. Of course I washed her as her parts and her completed size have been dragged around of six years. Now she is no longer called “the quilt from hell.” Now she is called…DONE.
Here’s a close up of a border corner. The curve on the left binding is a camera distortion. The quilt is square.
The back is nicely textured, and I like the warmth of the ruby color.
Most of all, the task I set myself to make a hand-made quilt for each of my 7 grandchildren is now also complete. “Happy” is ALL made by hand except for sewing the binding on one side with my sewing machine–the other side is hand sewn. I always hand sew my bindings on the loose side.
DONE is a very nice word right now. I’m “Happy.”
Louisa Enright's Blog 
It is magnificent! As you set this aside for the grandchild, I hope you leave a note without giving the story of “how it was made” and the time involved. It will be a treasure for years to come.
I so agree. Thanks. It’s why I named it “Happy.” BUT, there is a lesson here too about staying the course–as in “she persisted.” LOL.
I have about 30 double diamonds made and on my last trip failed to take one stitch on the project. I’m starting to think about how many placemats I could make out of those hexi’s!! Good job for sticking with it!
Absolute work of art and quilting. Congratulations, job well done.
Louisa, your quilt is STUNNING!!!! I think we’ve all had that “quilt from hell” at some point. I totally understand that relief when finally finishing. I made my son a quilt for Christmas with a Star Wars theme – didn’t consider directional fabrics and the pattern I chose and my need to have things lined up a certain way……. oh I thought that quilt was going to be the death of me and I was never more happy then when I finished it. But it was totally worth it when he opened the box and a 43 year old had tears in his eyes….. wasn’t my intention, but sure warmed my heart that he loved it that much. On to our next projects!!! Have a wonderful day.
I bet you are relieved but I remember how excited you were to start it 🤣 It didn’t take long for that opinion to change. It does look great – congratulations.
Your quilt is absolutely gorgeous. Hand quilting is such a peaceful act. It let’s my brain just wander.
It really turned out so beautifully! You are a great role model in persevering on an at times se not very fun project!!
I tried to comment earlier and that didn’t work because of word press! Ugh. I can understand the time space from start to finish! Oooofta! Love the finish!
Thanks so much for commenting Joy. And thanks for reading my blog. If you also have a WordPress blog, you have to sign out of it before commenting on another blog. I follow Wendysquilting blog and have this same issue. I can like it, but can’t comment. Ugh!