Finished quilt: Defiant (Hand Pieced QAL quilt 2)

Quilt details

Name of quilt and Recipient:

• ”Defiant”, after the star ship in the Star Trek New Generation-series. Because while I was planning the layout and color scheme to use for the 1st quilt, Discovery, I happened to be watching the Star Trek show Defiant on Netflix. New episodes came out every Monday, just like the new blog posts for the blocks to be constructed. In that universe, the Defiant is a sister ship to both the Enterprise and the Discovery. And the name sort of fit - because I did manage to get the quilt blocks done for Defiant despite me getting a slipped disc in my spine and having to learn how to hand-piece while laying on my back in bed, on painkillers. 
• myself

Size and Timeline

• 140 x 239 cm (length x height).
• timeline
• blocks were constructed between 25th of January and 25th of March.
• quilt top done by April 4th.
• quilt was basted on April 12th.
• hand-quilted between 12.4. - 1.06.2019 and bound between 1 - 2.6.2019.
• label added/embroidered 4 - 28.6.2019.

Pattern and Fabrics used:

• The patterns for the nine sampler blocks were the ones provided by the QAL hosts (Kristin Esser of Simple Handmade Everyday, and Patty Duschek of Elm Street Quilts).
• The layout I used for setting the block is one that diverges from both  the on point and traditional setting provided by the hosts. I wanted to have a more "contemporary modern" layout with LOTS of negative space around the blocks, so I came up with the one I wrote about earlier.

Defiant's layout

• About the fabrics used for the quilt top
• Every single piece of fabric to make the quilt top came from the stash at Arbis; three different solids and one matching floral.

Batting, backing and binding fabric:

• One of my mother's old white "catastrophe" blankets that she'd donated to me. I didn't want to use them as they were, so both became batting for Discovery and Defiant.
• Backing used was hand-pieced together from an children's bed sheet from IKEA, that I had gotten from (I think) Folkhälsan's Retro bazaar flea market.
• Binding used was 5 cm wide, and I used the same pale violet fabric that's also used as the background on the quilt top. I machine stitched together the binding from the rest of the scraps that were left from making the top.
• The binding is flanged, meaning it has another folded fabric piece under it that shows through a little. Because of this, I sew down the violet binding by machine to the front of the quilt, and then hand-stitched it down on the back. I was hoping it would keep better that way.

Quilting pattern:

• I hand-quilted straight lines on the whole quilt, in the pattern shown here under:  

Defiant's quilting pattern

Top thread:

• For piecing both the top and the backing: Gutermann Mara 120, 100% polyester, 1000m, color 800 (white).

Hand-quilting thread:

• I used a light violet Perlé cotton size 8 thread, one that I had bought from Folkhälsan's REtro Bazaar flea market back in February. It look me nearly one whole ball to get Defiant quilted. See the photo here under, it's the one on the left.
• For the label, I used the hot pink Perlé cotton one you can see in the upper right corner. 

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#linneaeaquiltsdefiant2019
#handpiecedqal

~~~~~~Layout~~~~~~~

I just wanted to jot down a few thought about the layout I'd planned for the Defiant quilt.

I had this thought that I could make a more "modern" layout with the blocks I had made, and I tried searching on Pinterest for ideas concerning "modern" layouts for both quilt tops and backings. I sketched out a few mock-ups on paper, but then I made a final one using Paint (yeah, I'm old school, because I don't have Adobe Illustrator or the like) just so I would have it as a file.

I didn't have the time then to color in all the areas in the quilt blocks to directly correspond with the ones I've already made, so that's why they are in black and white.

But you can at least see what my plan is, and that's the main thing. I'm a bit unsure still about what I would like to have the backing to look like, but I'm hoping it'll come to me. Not having a pieced backing would be nice, because it would save me some time.

I'll have to assemble the big violet areas out smaller parts, because the violet fabric I have to work with (that came out of the fabric stash at Arbis) was already cut into ~ fat quarter sizes. With rounded (!?!) corners non the less, so I had to square them up to begin with and lost a little in that process too.

But Defiant become a large quilt, or at least a LONG quilt. Because 9 blocks measuring 6'' finished is already 54'', and with the sashings added that have a finished length of 2.5'' x 8.

54'' + 20'' = 74'', and then also the sashings at the ends, and those are 2 x 6'', so 74'' + 12'' = 94''

(That's about 239 cm)

Yeah, maybe I should have planned ahead, and put the blocks in two rows instead of in one, but I kept to this design because I liked how it looked. But I did start cursing when it was time to do the quilting on it...

~~~~~~Block construction~~~~~~

The color scheme was totally dependent on these solids and one floral I found at the stash at Arbis. I didn't use anything but them to construct the top. (success!)

Blocks 1, 2 and 3.

Because of how the blocks were constructed, I needed a 1/4 inch ruler for the marking lines, and to square the blocks up I needed a 6 x 6 inch ruler (I know they finished at 6x6" and like this I could see if the outer points in the blocks met the 6 inch marks, even if they needed to be 6.5 x 6.5 inches unfinished).

I made them by using washi tape on two of my regular rulers.

And then the unforeseen happened.

I slipped a disc in my spine one morning, while helping my daughter get dressed,

After time in the ER and one night at the hospital, really doped up on a LOT of different painkillers and wondering if I even would be able to walk properly again, I got back home unable to do a lot of things.

Take care of the kids, for example. Walk up and down our stairs. So, yeah, we solved that with us putting one of the larger baby gates around one of the beds (my daughter's), and then I din't walk downstairs for a LOT of days. I slept a lot, and when I could I read books on my iPhone and glue-basted hexies....

...and hand-pieced blocks for both Defiant and Discovery.

Try taking a photo of a constructed block on a bed lying down. I know I did, this is one of the better photos.

My husband helped me get downstairs to prep more blocks, I had the pieces stacked on this small tray to help me keep them organized.

That tray lay next to me in bed all day and night long.

A few weeks later, I was so much better (even if I still felt frail) I had the energy to iron and photograph the blocks I had gotten constructed.

block 1

block 2

block 3

block 4

block 5

block 6

...and how block 6 looked on the back

block 7 

block 7, already with sashing

 

block 8, already with sashing

By then, I had already started making the sashings for the blocks, and adding them so the blocks would end up into the great vertical row I had planned them to become.

Hah! It looks like I'm watching a Missouri Star Quilt Co LIVE video on Youtube while I'm piecing in the next photo.

Then came the last block.

block 9

block 9

...and the back of block 9

And then, on April 3rd, came the official labels for both my quilts that I had bought from Patty Dudek. I was piecing the very last seams on Defiant when I opened the letter.

This photo, taken on April 4th, was an eye-opener for me.

Defiant was HUGE ( #thatquiltishuge ). I might have unloaded a bit of my worries about it being so huge on the Hand Pieced QAL Fb group...

Next up: basting.

First time I've ever ironed a quilt sandwich while getting it basted - but I can say now that I REALLY am totally converted! The resulting quilt sandwich was totally worth the extra time it took.

Look! It's so smooooth!

Then, it became time to hand-quilt it.

I did it, basically, one horizontal-row+with+block at a time.

And boy did it take long.

And oh how my back hurt.

the table I had the quilt folded on as I was quilting it, was way too short in height for my saddle chair. But it did work, even if it took a long time. And it did managed to teach me, once again, that I can't expect my back to behave like it used to. For quilting Discovery, later,  would have to find some other way. (I did, but you can read that in the post about Discovery once it has gotten finished). 

Lots of color options regarding thread, but I really lucked out when I found that pale violet.

Label getting prepped.

In the photo here under, taken in the evening on May 30th, I was 6 short straight lines from finishing the quilting on Defiant. But my daughter wanted me to come and read her a bedtime story instead.

Yeah, those short lines were all that was left.

So, the hand-quilting got finished officially on June 1st.

And since it was a Sunday, and we had plans to visit my mother-in-law so she could get to spend time with our kids, I took Defiant with me and added the flanged part of the binding in the car.

Then, when we got home in the evening, and before we put the kids to bed, I machine stitched together some 2.5" wide binding strips and machine stitched it to the front of Defiant.

This is the ONLY part of Defiant that is machine stitched, everything else was done by hand. But I was unsure on how sturdy and tiny my own hand-stitching would be here, and I wanted it to REALLY hold up to a lot of washings, since the quilt is really going to be used.

I finished Defiant at 1 am on June 3rd.

If you're wondering about the quilt ghost, it's my dear husband.

Because he happened to still be up then too, and he didn't even need a lot of prompting (he said "Okay, where do yo want me to stand?) to act the quilt ghost so I could get a funny photo for Instagram.

I had, totally, forgotten about documenting the backing, so here's a finished photo of Defiant's back. It's pieced from three different big pieces out of the IKEA bed linen I used for it..

Here's a detail photo of what I had wanted to add to the quilt label, sketched out with vanishing violet market.

Then, I kept wondering about how on Earth I was going to take a photo of it, because it didn't fit my usual "display it on hangers against the book case". It was WAY too long.

While this was happening, I took it with us on our Midsummer trip to visit my parents. I slept under it at the rented cabin, because the blankets there were way too hot in the warm weather.

And then, once we came home, I just thought "why not" and hanged it from our balcony. It was a bit tricky, because my clips on the hangers might have it drop down at any time because of its weight.

Luckily, that didn't happen.

And this is how far I've gotten on the label - I will finish it when there's a bit more time, and then add those photos here too. I want to add the proper dates for all the different times a part of it was finished - a timeline of sorts.

I'll leave you with these last photos I took, of how much the sunlight filters through Defiant, making it look like stained glass.

And with those like-stained-glass photos, I'll conclude Defiant's story.

Thank you for reading it!

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