CARPE DIEM FINISHED

 I got the facing made and sewn on and Carpe Diem is now a finished quilt.

This is finish number 13 for the year.

DONE HAND QUILTING

 I finally finished the hand quilting big stitch on the Carpe Diem quilt of improv Hourglass blocks.

I haven't done any hand quilting in decades, at least on anything this big.  

I pinned up a sheet of plastic on the work wall and pinned the quilt up, using lots of pins.  My purpose was to get it squared up and straight.  Then I sprayed it with water to get the blue marking lines to disappear.  It took a lot of spraying, some of the marks were a little stubborn, but they all eventually went away.

However, orange from the Aurifil 50wt thread I used for the basting left orange marks and faint lines here and there on the lightest fabric.  Very disappointing. 

I patted the quilt, while wet, to get the layers  to meld together and it looks a lot better now.  

So here it is:

Before I sprayed with water, notice the orange dots and faint lines between.

After water, marking lines are gone, but orange dots still visible.

BASTING

 I finished marking the Carpe Diem quilt top with a quilting design.

I've loaded it onto the longarm to baste it.

BACKING FOR HOURGLASS

 I finished sewing together the scraps from the Improv Hourglass into a long strip.  I inked the label onto it, renaming the quilt Carpe Diem.  I found a haiku I liked and inked that on there, too.

Hold time in a hand

frail golden droplets of sand

whisper carpe diem

I sewed the strip of scraps into the middle of the African fabric I purchased for the backing.  So, it's done and now I have to figure out how I'm going to quilt it.

HOURGLASS TOP FINISHED

It's done.  I finally finished the Improv Hourglass top.  

It's about 51" by 72".

There's lots of scraps, I think I'll sew them together and incorporate them into the backing.

REPLACED THAT BLOCK

 I spent the morning making a bunch of smaller wonky improv Hourglass blocks to replace that dark brown block that was bothering me.

I got it all sewed together, too.

Here's how it looked at the end of today.

Now, I think that left side looks a little bland, so I changed the bottom right corner.  

I think it's looking better now.

PIECING THEM TOGETHER

 I've been sewing more and more of these Hourglass blocks together.  

Here's how it looked at the end of today.

I'm thinking about replacing that large chunk of dark brown with something else.  

MORE HOURGLASS BLOCKS

 The Hourglass quilt is getting closer to the size I want as I add more blocks and move some around.  And sewing a few of them together.

WORKING ON HOURGLASS

 I've  been making Hourglass blocks in various sizes since the workshop with Sherri Lynn Wood.

Here where I am at the moment.

I added some more and took this photo in mono to see how the values are working.