Mt Robson Quilt Comes Together

About a week after I started the Mt Robson quilt, I had all the pieces cut out. I did go out and get a new pair of scissors: the "medium" size Perfect Scissors from Karen Kay Buckley. It was the only brand carried by my LQS, but I was able to try them at the store and they felt pretty good.

Cutting with them was certainly much better than with my little embroidery scissors, so once I had those, cutting was fairly quick, easy, and (happily) painless.

Assembling the layers was supposed to be easier done over a light box. (The directions actually recommended using a window, but I don't know how they get the pieces to stay on the background.) I don't have a light box, but I had heard of people using their sewing machine extension tables and I do have one of those.

So, take one clear extension table:

put the pattern on upside down (so that the picture's not reversed):

 add a light bulb underneath:

 and you have a light box!

I put the background fabric over the pattern (the blue piece is the sky which had already been affixed) and then started to add the pieces in numerical order following the pattern underneath.

But it didn't work very well because I just couldn't see the pattern through the layers of fabric.

So I had the brilliant idea to trace the pattern with a marker on the side I could see:

and tried again. Well, it still didn't work. There's just not enough light to get through the multiple layers of fabric that build up. So eventually I gave up on my brilliant idea and just placed the pieces by eye-balling and lots of referring to the pattern.

You put all the pieces on and arrange them until you're happy and then fuse them all at once. And here is the final top:

A lovely little scene, isn't it? All the pieces are stuck down. I had no problem with the iron-on adhesive so switching to a lower heat setting worked! :)

What this quilt needs now is some batting and a backing and then some quilting. I think I'll be doing a lot of free-motion quilting with a lot of different colours of thread. I looked at thread when I was shopping for the scissors, but I decided to wait until I could bring the piece in and look at the thread colours on the quilt. I'm not sure how many shades of green, grey and blue I'll use.

I expect I'll do some sewing to just hold down the edges of the pieces, and then add more to give texture to the trees, water, sky, etc.

And before I forget to tell you, I heard back from the store where I bought this pattern and they do have a Mount Rundle pattern! I just need to find a time when I can call them and they're open and then it will be winging its way to me.

And now there's very little pressure on me for this quilt. I can use it for practice and do the Mount Rundle piece "for reals".