Several months ago, I embarked on a Big Project: a king sized pieced quilt for our bed.  I was tired of the quilt I’d made over ten years ago, and I had a stack of Asian fabric to start with.  I knew I’d need to buy more, but that is the quilter’s best excuse.  I love fabric.  Sometimes a beautiful pattern or texture of cloth can elicit a visceral reaction.

For this quilt, round edges were my new challenge.  I cut the fan blades and slowly, over weeks, sewed ninety-four fans.

Once I had cut the white squares, I laid out the center pieces on the design wall (see above).  But the quilt was too big for the wall, so I moved to the floor.  The only space large enough proved to be our bedroom, and even then, I had the corners under the dresser and the bed.

With the top done, I took all the extra fabric, plus some new yardage, and stitched it together to make a back.  The quilt top measured 107″ square.  In the end, I was wrangling a huge amount of fabric in and out of the sewing machine.

When front and back were done, I sent it off to a local long-arm quilter, who did a magnificent job sewing the “quilt sandwich” together.  Then I put on the binding, and VOILA!  A very big finished project.

I won’t say, “Never again!” But it will be a long time before I take on anything as big as that fan quilt.