Tuesday, January 31, 2012


Hello, my name is Cathy, and I live in Southern Ontario. I have a blog called Eagles' Wings Quilts. Brenda left a comment on my Design wall Monday post yesterday, which had a picture of my string piecing almost finished project, telling me about the beginnings of this blog, and inviting me to play along, and show what I've been working on with my pile of strings. Considering that I am always happy to talk quilts with anyone who is willing to listen, I willingly agreed.
It is a quilt pattern called Endless Chain, by Emilie Richards. I first saw a picture of this quilt on the cover of the novel of the same name. I fell in love with the picture of the quilt, and sent away for the pattern for it. By the way, if you've never read any of her books, I would highly recommend them. Anyway, to continue the story of the quilt, the fabric used for the coloured section of the quilt squares in the pattern was a stripe, but I decided to make my own stripes instead, using my very large supply of scraps and strings. I copied out a blank pattern piece for the coloured wedges, and divided it into sections, and then photocopied a seemingly endless amount of them to use as a guide for string piecing. I wanted a uniformity to the size of the strings, rather than random.  They were then trimmed  and sewn onto the navy blue background pieces, and  a hexagon took shape.Fast forward almost 2 years.  According to my blog, I started this quilt on March 3, 2010, and today  the last stitches were taken, and the last threads were cut, and there is now a finished quilt top.This is big enough to fit a double bed. I have deliberately not counted the number of pieces of fabric in here. But, it is 9 rows wide, with 9 hexagons in each row....... 81 hexagons. That's a lot of "Y" seams. I think for my next string project, which I haven't chosen yet, I'll do something a little easier. LOL!! Right now, I'm thinking a combination of strings, incorporated into a regular pattern, like the centers of stars, or something like that, which I can do a few of at a time. Hmmmmmm............. Any other suggestions?

9 comments:

Joanne said...

Your quilt (top) is fabulous. thanks for explaining it's construction. Joanne

Brenda said...

thanks for the post. From looking at the picture, I thought it was made entirely another way. the big question is this: now that it is done, would you do it again? It looks great, but I know how much work something like this can be.

Cathy said...

No, I don't think I would do another of these. I love the way it looks, but there were way to many Y seams to want to do it again. My next one has to be way more simple.

Richard Healey said...

It looks pretty cool. I am new to quilting and have read the term y seam how exactly do you do them?

http//richardquilts.blogspot.com

Sara said...

I made a quilt with that same pattern back in 2006, but I stopped when it was lap-sized. I used yellow and red batiks with a gray background. It was a gift for my Secret Sister. And NO I would never do it again!

I am really impressed that you kept at it to make it so big.

Nifty Quilts said...

I LOVE this! May have to try making one like it sometime.

Paulette said...

That is stunningly beautiful! Well done!

Lori R. said...

I'm just seeing this quilt top for the first time today and I am so impressed - well worth the effort! Congratulations, it is stunning!!

Rhonda said...

I love this design. There are so many possibilities. I love the secondary design of a circle!!! Great job.