Sweet Dreams - Finishing Up

     My favorite pieced quilt of all time!  I love this quilt.  The piecing is very precise thanks to Deb Tucker's V block ruler, Quilt in a Day triangle ruler and extreme starching.  I love the colors and fabrics, Hand Picked by Riley Blake.  I love the design.  This is the most complicated piecing I have done and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

     As best as I can tell, it took 59 hours to starch the fabric , cut out, and piece the top together.  It took 14 hours to make the quilt sandwich and quilt it.   It took 4 hours to make the binding, bind it and make the label.  Speaking of the binding, I decided to use continuous bias binding as binding on the bias is supposed to wear longer.  I have used other tutorials in the past on how to cut the continuous binding but the one from makeit-loveit. com explained it more clearly than I have seen it before.  How to Make Continuous Strip Bias Binding  .
     I frequently neglect the last 5%, taking good pictures of my finished product as they are out the door as soon as they are finished.  This one had a trip to Stone Mountain Park in Georgia for her photo shoot.

Sweet Dreams - V Blocks

     

     With 148 V blocks to make, I needed to be able to pick up my pace.  I only got 40 made on the first day.  The pattern has templates to use to make the blocks.  Most patterns do.  That spells wonky disaster in my book.  I was grateful that in the last quilting class I took, we were provided with our fee Deb Tucker's V Block ruler.   I cannot imagine making 148 blocks without it!

     The directions are simple.  The ruler provides lines to cut the middle triangle and the sides.  For a 3.5 inch block (3 inch) finished, you cut a strip 4" wide.  That gives plenty of room for trimming up without wasting fabric.  And it makes a PERFECT block.

     Since I had starched the fabric with straight starch, it was easy to finger press after the first side was stitched without having to go to the ironing board. Then I added the second side, finger pressed and ended with a touch up from the iron.

     After stitching the sides, the lines on the ruler are easy to see.  First cut comes from this side.

Flip the block over and easy to use lines are on the other side.


Result - perfect block.
Perfectly squared.
Perfect 1/4 seam at the top.

Aren't these luscious looking?  Stacked in groups of 4.