Almost Done -- Well at Least the Top

A long journey with this quilt is finally coming to an end.  It was definitely a challenge as I did not have enough of the main fabric, nor the purple or green fabrics to finish it completely.  I literally used every square inch of the blue.  You probably can't see but several of the hexagons on the outside top and bottom rows are star blocks instead of the larger hexagons.  I was only short four blocks.  If you look real closely you can see that I rearranged a lot of the big blocks to give a little better balance of colors -- most noticeable in the blocks with a lot of white that are kind of on the corners of the blue now.  In this picture I have started putting the rows together.  I can't sew them together to make the top until I decide what do on the ends to square it off.  

I had to take off the blocks individuall and attach triangles to make them into diamonds, then put them back on the wall and pin them in order.  Even with that compulsiveness, there were several times I almost put them together in the wrong order!

Finally all the rows are sewn together and the rows are back on the wall.  I found another 2 yard  piece of one of my green dyed pieces that is pretty close to the greens I used on the outer blocks.

All the rows are sewn and I have pieced most of the side pieces to square up the quilt.  Before I cut out the triangles and half triangles that I needed, I cut some strips lengthwise of the fabric.  Still not enough to make for unseamed pieces but this gives you an idea of what it is going to look like when done.  Now just to finish doing all the side pieces on the rows and sew the rows together and put this first border on which will make the center look a bit like it is floating.  Then I have to decide what more I want to do.  These added pieces make the quilt about 67 x 80 which  should fit on a queen sized bed.  I think the green calms it down a bit myself!

I should note that this is my original design, first done in a small size for the 2004 Hoffman Challenge.  I have not seen this arrangement anyplace else.  The weather has been cooperating the last couple of days by being cold, miserable and windy and not conducive to sitting on the porch!!  In fact, I wouldn't mind having long johns at this point!