Friday Finish...Not Quite

I do have a finish this week, the binding is on the Courtyard Tiles quilt and it just needs to be washed and photographed. The sham fabric has been quilted, trimmed and the edges sewn down so that it can be washed before I sew them together (don't want it to shrink after it is sewn). But since my sister-in-law reads this blog and I want the reveal to be a little special I'm not showing any photos today...sorry Mecca!!!

This is the biggest quilt I've made to date and will be the biggest I make for a long time. I have a 10 foot table on my Avante and I learned some real lessons with this one.  In my head I thought 10 foot table meant I had 120 inches to work, but I forgot to take into account the carriage where the machine sits, which is about 6 inches wide, which means I have to take 12 inches off of the 120 (6 inches each side). So that leave 108 inches needle area, and this quilt is 108 inches. Now that means I had no wiggle room at all, and it also meant I needed to purchase some narrow side clamps, to allow for the backing being larger than 108 inches.

All in all this quilt taught me several things. First I learned what my machine can and can't do, I had never pushed the limits before this quilt. I learned how to move furniture around so that when I was piecing and binding to give me enough table space to work with such a large quilt and now I have a plan when I have to do this in the future. I learned that king sized quilts are just plain heavy, it is surprising how heavy. I learned I don't mind working with lots and lot of little pieces, but I'm not fast when doing so. And lastly I learned that while not easy, I can make really big quilts.

My goal is to wash the quilt and shams tomorrow morning. I don't want them to sit wet in the washer just in case some of the reds run. Since Sharla and I will both be home we can wash them and check them before putting them into the dryer. It will take both of us to check it since it is so big. Then I just have to cut and piece the shams, which shouldn't be too hard. And if all goes well I should be able to gift it late this weekend or early next week.

I have started working on my City Streets quilt and hope to have the flimsy done on it soon as well. I think the next quilt to go on the machine will be Sharla's City Street quilt because it isn't too big and I need a break from really big quilts. I would like to get at least one more flimsy quilted this quarter, and if possible two more. But for now I'm happy with where I stand.

I won't be linking up with any of the Friday Finishes linky parties, because although the quilt is finished I'm not showing it just yet. And because I hate post without pictures, here is Marley snuggled up in his quilt and Hollywood trying to look innocent.

Hollywood will be very glad when Mecca's quilt leaves the house, I have to bar him from the quilt room because his black hair gets everywhere and I've been trying to avoid it getting on/in the quilt since it has so much white.