It's Wednesday, We Must Be Quilting

This phase of putting this beast together is just about complete.  We are putting on the borders!

I cut the 2 1/2 inch strips, sewed them together, and pressed them.  Betsy pinned then on the quilt top.  Checking each seam as we went.  Good thing...we found a few that needed a little extra TLC.

The top is so big that it pulls to the left making it a bit of a challenge to sew a straight 1/4 inch seam.  But sure-handed Bets was there to help guide it through.

On monster of a quilt top finished!!!!

If our calculations are correct the finished quilt will be 104" x 119".

This is what it looks like on our king-sized bed.

Next Wednesday we will be making a trip to the fabric store to buy the backing.  I don't trust myself to buy the right amount of fabric...I get really nervous thinking I won't have enough for piecing the back or I will buy way too much.  So we are going to let the experts tell us how much we need.

We Can Almost See The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

The precise pinning by Betsy begins.  Each row needs a sashing.  The first one is the easiest one but it set up the line for the rest.  You pin, look, look again, eye it up, and pin again another 5 times in each of the 56 squares.  Takes lots of time and patience.

I sew a 1/4 inch seam along the edge of each sashing the width of the quilt.

I trim, iron and look for mistakes.

If I find anything wrong, Betsy picks it out, repins it and I then re-sew it and re press it.  And of course, check it again.  Then I hand it off to Betsy and she checks it again.

Pressing the sashing seams toward the black.

Pinning the last row!!!!

The quilt top is almost finished.  We measured and I am going to take it up to our king size bed to see how it fits.  We are trying to figure out if we should use a 2-inch or 4-inch border all the way around.  Right now it measures 96 X 111, roughly.