W.I.P. Wednesday - Swoon Half Done

I'm practically jumping out of my skin with excitement!  Today I finished my Swoon quilt top!  And I'm almost finished the back.  Yeeee-hahhhhh!

I had planned on using the huge amount of scraps to make little stars or something tricky to go in the junctions between the blocks, but when I made a mock up, I just thought it took away from the main blocks, so I literally scrapped the scraps.  I was also planning on making 12 blocks, but after laying 10 finished blocks out on my lounge room floor, I adjusted my plan because it was so damn huge!  I did however want it to be bigger than the 80" that the pattern made - so I just made the sashing and borders 5" wide instead of the 2.5" as the pattern instructed.  This quilt top now measures a scrummy 90" square.  It's massive!

Another discovery made during this process was that my 1/4" foot for my Bernina is not entirely accurate.  I always knew it wasn't spot on, but these blocks were meant to be 24.5", and they came in just over 24".  Which meant I had to trim them down/square them to 24".  And this also then meant that I lost some points on my stars on the edges on the blocks.  But I really am not stressed about it - because it's MY QUILT!

Isn't she lovely?

As soon as I finished the quilt top this morning, I started working out what on earth I would do for the back.  I had bought some six yards of one Notting Hill print for the backing, but even with the two widths joined together, it was going to be around 13" too narrow, so I got to figuring out how to make up the width.  This is where the larger scraps from the cutting out of blocks came in handy.  And this is where my super technical mathematical diagram came in to play.  I'm so smart.  Not.

Anyway, the backing is almost done.  But you will have to wait until Friday for that reveal - because I will have a finished project!  Well, finished as far as I can - because this little big baby is being sent off to a long arm quilter.  The first time I've ever done that!  One of my lovely readers directed me to a Flickr group, where a long arm quilter was offering to quilt Swoon quilts for a cheaper rate.  Only problem - she was in New York!  So I scrolled through the comments and stumbled upon an Aussie quilter offering the same special offer!  And that's where this quilt is heading.

I'm still stuck on a design for the quilting.  I will be spending time over the next couple of days looking through the design catalogues and trying to come to some sort of decision - if you have any suggestions or ideas in terms of quilting - TELL ME!!!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced - You can too!