This month, I sewed the binding to my Trip Around the World quilt. It’s the biggest quilt I’ve ever made, finishing at 231cm x 256cm (91in x 101in). Let me tell you the story of how it came to be.
Six years ago, I started cutting squares from fabrics in my stash. I wanted to sew a colourful, simple-to-construct quilt for my bed. A quilt that would be easy to stitch by machine. At that time, I had a huge design wall at one end of my sewing room so I took advantage of that and started playing with the squares, arranging them in diagonal rows in colour combinations I liked. Each block is nine squares at its widest.
I decided to separate the blocks with rows of black squares so a-shopping I went, looking for various black and white prints that read as predominately black. That was a fun expedition.
Soon my design wall was full, so I started sewing rows together. Joining squares has to be one of my most pleasant stitching experiences. I love it when all those corners come together. I’ve made several small quilts with different layouts of squares since and have many ideas for others.
Soon the quilt top became too large for the wall and I moved it and more squares to the floor, tip-toeing around it (and sometimes over it!) every time I entered the room. Still I kept adding squares until I decided there were enough. I folded up the quilt top and put it on a table.
Eventually, I booked it into be quilted by a professional longarm quilter who was a member of my quilt group. She did a beautiful job on it and I took it home, determined to bind it so I could use it on my bed. That was about four years ago.
Life got in the way for a few years but I took the quilt out of the cupboard recently and finished it – finally. It’s airing now and will be on my bed later this week, six years since I started it.
I never want to make a quilt that big again!