The Grand Convergence Experiment - Quilt Top Done!

It's hard to believe that just a little more than 2 months ago, quilting daughter, Stephanie, began The Grand Convergence Experiment.

And what a difference!

For those who have followed, this project began when Stephanie took out an "ugly" quilt and wanted to do something special with it.

One of Ricky Tims' books happened to be sitting around, so she got the idea of turning her ugly Irish Chain quilt into a Grand Convergence quilt. And Grand it is.

As you read down the blog, you will see how she got from there to here. And, actually it was fairly easy.

Once the blocks were re-constructed, she added borders to each block that would make them cock-eyed. Next was to simply sew the blocks together just as you would any other quilt.

The biggest decision was how to do the borders. As with so many things having to do with quilting, best laid plans and measuring still didn't create the perfect border.

She wanted to put the 9 patch squares next to the quilt top. She measured carefully, and she sewed what she thought were perfect 1/4 inch seam allowances. But when all of the little 9 patches were done, they didn't fit right.

Thus, the purple strip between the quilt top and the 9 patch border - just the size needed for the 9 patches to fit evenly around the quilt.

Another quilting problem solved.

And then there was the back. When it came time, she didn't have enough of one fabric for the back. So she created a pieced back.



She allowed me to pre-shrink the Hobbs Heirloom batting, and now the quilt is layered and ready for the next step.

Now, all that's left is the quilting. It will be interesting to see what she decides about that. Both of us are hand quilters. But she may want to finish this quilt in relatively short order.

Time will tell - I'll keep you posted!

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com