OPUS

This quilt's name is Lucinda Brodie.  The original pattern is from a 2009 McCall's Quilting Magazine, and it was all done by hand -- the piecing included. 

When I saw this pattern, I got in touch with quilting buddy and BFF Mary.  We decided to each do this quilt as personal challenges, since it was far more complicated than anything either of us had ever produced before.

However, neither of us wanted to hand piece anything, much less an intricate quilt like this one, so I divided the compasses into quarters and made paper piecing patterns out of them.  This solved two problems instantly:  how to get those perfect points consistently, and how to make the compasses "user friendly" by sewing them on a machine.

Mary showed me how to take the pieced compasses and sew them into the backgrounds, which were squares with the center circles already cut out.  The tall flying geese in the sashing were created with another paper piecing pattern I made from the original hand piecing patterns.

We used repro fabrics for everything, including the lovely appliques on the edges.  Actually, this quilt should be hung with the appliqued edges at the top and bottom, but my display area is not tall enough to do this over the couch, so I just turned mine on its side.

It sets off the newly redecorated medium gray/brown walls of the family room just perfectly!

Oh -- and the quilting is very detailed.  I don't like to use a bobbin thread that contrasts a lot with the backing, but in this case, if your backing is dark, as mine is, you need to use the same color thread as the background to the applique so that no snippets of color come through should your bobbin tension not be correct.

So, this is my opus for 2012.  It took several months to make, once the perfect fabrics were found.  But it took about 9 months to get up the nerve to tackle it in the first place.  The moral to the story: don't be daunted by any project you love from first sight.  It's so worth plodding through to the end!