The front of WWF is neatly folded on my work table.
The adventure that is the back of this quilt has begun. I’ve marked out the approximate area on my design wall, and am creating panels and pieces to be arranged within this area. It’s the loosest way I’ve ever worked on a quilt – Aimée came close, but was still much more structured – and I find it a little nerve-wracking, but remarkably liberating.
The haiku created and donated by some of the Friends have been written out on a series of stone-coloured homespun panels, and will be arranged in a column the height of the quilt with a red border on the dark blue back-ground. The other furoshiki wrapping cloth brought back from Japan for me by Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl is featured, as are some other pieces not used for the front. I have some nice scraps of a Japanese large floral print with a dark blue back-ground which I am also using, and their lavish design contrasts nicely with the slightly severe and restrained colour palette of the front. It’s rather good fun diving again and again into my scrap boxes to find suitable pieces, pinning bits up, taking them down and rearranging them.
I’m going to create a facing around the outside of red hexies, and this will be applied once I’ve done most of the hand-quilting, using whipstitch around the outside edge, and hemming where it’s attached to the body of the quilt. I need the slight contracture of the quilting to be in place so that the facing sits right.
It’s a joy to get back to the sewing machine for this part of the job. My hands are getting a rest, my fingers are healing and the pleasure of much more rapid results cannot be denied!
I hope the next post will show the completed back panel…
talltalesfromchiconia 
Wow! At first glance, that central panel looked a little like a stylized map of the world (or part of the world) which would be appropriate. Now that I’ve seen your plans for the back, it seems a shame that it will be hidden if the quilt turns out to be a wall hanging. I suppose you could always turn it round every now and again for a bit of a change of décor.
Off to the U.K. this afternoon – striking French air traffic controllers permitting (grrrrr) – so might go a bit quiet for a week or two (just in case you think I’ve fallen over and been suffocated by my cats).
x
bon voyage Tialys.
Safe travels, hope you get some good shopping in!
Will do! Plus a good curry and some fish and chips.
Oh stop! Fish & chips I can live without, but the curry here just isn’t the same and costs a fortune. The best I’ve had is in Cairns, at a place where all the Indians eat, dozens of them with all their families, only walking distance from the hotel we normally stay at. The rest of the time I have to be satisfied with my own curries…
The back looks fabulous. The ideal would be to use it as a room divider so that not a patch nor a stitch would be hidden. I’m glad the hands are recovering.
I think it will have to be a wall hanging, but perhaps turned round from time to time, as Tialys suggests…
Yes, you’ll need to be able to turn it. It’s really looking fabulous, front and back. And what a wonderful tribute to friendship.
It’s going to have a concealed internal rod pocket so I can hang it either way. And I love the way I can look at each fabric and know where and who it came from!
Absolutely stunning – everything about this work is beautiful – the contributors, the construction and design, the fabrics, the love that has gone into it….
That’s so kind! We’re getting there slowly with the back – I was unable to resist a little bit of hand sewing, which will get shown next time.
Oh, it would be ideal to use it as a room divider! But reversing it occasionally works too. 🙂 It’s going to be spectacular. Wish I’d thought about the back (or knew what you were planning), I bet I have some pieces you could have put to good use.
It’s fun to work in this liberated way isn’t it? The only catch I’ve found is that it requires a bit more mental energy and I don’t have that as much as I’d like these days.
Normally I’m a great fan of the plain and simple back, since it spends most of its time flat on the bed. This time, however, I needed a home for the poems, extra donated fabric and a few ideas I wanted to play with. I don’t suppose it’s the last collaborative quilt I’ll ever do, since it’s been huge fun in development and I’ve made lots of great friends in the process.
I love the different panels, patterns, flowers & fish and the layout. It looks wonderful 🙂
It’s fun, isn’t it? Since it’s the back, I took the opportunity to really mix it up and do things I wouldn’t do on the front.
It’s looking super, glad you’re having fun with it. Those reds you chose are finally on the way, Monday most likely, if you still have need of them, or if you’ve worked super-fast and don’t, I’m sure you’ll find a use for them in another project.
I’ll still want to use them; there’s going to be a band of red hexies all round the outside edge of the back, so they’ll come in very, very useful! Thank you so much for sending them, it’ll give some much needed variety to my red selection.
Isn´t it fun to create a backing?? 🙂 I´m doing that more and more. You don´t have to be too exact and you can use up all the scraps from the quilt if you want. Love it!!!!
Gun
My only worry is pinning it all together, quilting it all, and then finding the backing is crooked!
Yes, I know the feeling……!
that looks good !
Thanks, it’s getting there!
What an elegant quilt!
Thank you! I have many hours of hand quilting still to go, and have made a rod for my own back with all the seams to stitch through, but it’s going to be good when it’s done, and I can breathe a sigh of relief. The next few will all be done on the machine, that’s for sure!