Basting Marathon

An article by Rachel    2 Comments

My Saturday evening was spent basting this huge quilt. Getting to this point took a bit of effort. I finished the quilt top probably 18 months ago. For some reason, I got it into my head that the quilt top measured 100″ x 100″. I knew I wanted the quilt blocks to be an even number. Over the past month, I’ve been rounding up supplies to finish the quilt. I bought a king-sized batting and a king-sized quilt sheet. The quilt sheet measured 102″ x 108″. I added a strip of fabric at the top for the additional length.

Well on Wednesday night, I started the basting process. I pinned the back to my floor, rolled out the batting, and laid out the top. It took only a couple of minutes to realize something was wrong. The quilt top isn’t symmetrical. It’s a rectangle. Ugh, Ugh, Ugh! The quilt top measures 94″ x 112″. First, what was I thinking, 112″? That’s a long quilt. I guess I’ll have plenty of length to pull back at the top of our bed. Second, my quilt bottom is too back. I pulled up the quilt and saved it for Saturday.

On Saturday, I managed to get to a quilt store and buy more fabric to increase the length. I purchased the original fabric three years ago. Consequently, today’s fabric don’t quite match. They are a bit brighter. Really it doesn’t matter. It’s a quilt back. Right? I finally started the basting process. This quilt is by far the largest quilt that I’ve ever quilt. The pin basting process took four hours, and my back has take several days to recover. I won’t be able to do this forever, at least on a quilt this size.

It’s ready to quilt. Before I get started, I’m going to finish up a couple of small projects that I definitely want to finish this month.