We interrupt this tour of France and the European Patchwork Meeting to bring you breaking news: I finished the Chuck Nohara Quilt Top!
My husband held it up for me, but it’s big — about 80″ wide, and similar height.
Above are the Chuck Nohara blocks that Susan and I chose; we took turns choosing blocks to make–four a month, which sometimes about did me in. I’ll have you know that she is ALL DONE with her quilt. (I took this photo inside, the quilt smoothed up on my design wall, so all the blocks were visible.)
And then we made signature blocks for each other, to commemorate that year-plus of making weensy little fussy blocks. (How did we decide to do this? Blame the Chuck Nohara QAL Instagram Feed.) The above signature block is hers, surrounded by my tiny plus-sign blocks and the final star borders. I have other posts tagged with “Chuck Nohara” so you can either click on the label at the bottom of this one to get more info, or do a search in the box to the right.
Here’s my signature block. Do I love love this quilt? Parts of it, most of it. If I had another millennium, I might have tried something different besides the two borders, then star borders. Let me rephrase that… I DID try a lot of different things but nothing clicked to me (now I have a lot of cut fabric for string blocks). At some point, the old mantra clicked in my head: “Better done, than perfect” as well as “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Sometimes it’s fine to have some good quilts. I love so much of what I learned with this quilt–so many different techniques. But I’m also glad it’s at this spot. I’ll bring it back when I finish quilting it, but for now, I’m putting it up on the 200 Quilts List.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
Oh my goodness Elizabeth!! It’s gorgeous! You should be so proud of it!
I’m so proud of you!!!! This thing is wonderful and I remember the inspiration of your posts on almost every block (my effort has fallen quite short, but remains with a weak pulse). All your color values work out perfectly! And you get an A+ for those small crosses – am working on a BOM now and the same block is giving me serious heartburn!~ Cannot wait to see it after it’s quilted! Again, good job.
Stunning work, so awesome! You did such a lovely job! You’re inspiring me to get mine out of the box it’s languishing in & work on it again. Amazing work, and you are also so good at keeping up your blog regularly
What a magnificent accomplishment!
I love it
Absolutely love this quilt, the use of crosses for sashing and
how you stuck with it. You are amazing!
Love love love your Chuck!
Fantastic! So many unusual blocks! I’m sure you must feel like you learned some new techniques in the process. I’m always a little sad that a project is finished, but I will tell you, during the “final assembly” my brain and heart have moved on to new projects! Congrats on the finish. (This is where my quilts languish, on hangers, waiting for the “right backing” or the “right final border” or “just waiting for the energy to tackle quilting them”. )
It really is a fabulous quilt top. It is so alive and fun. I am looking forward to seeing this one quilted. However, if you decide to go that other route with your design ideas, I will be more than happy to take this one off of your hands!!! lol
Gosh Elizabeth! This is simply eye-popping. So much to see and study. Now that it’s nearly – well, at least half-way – finished, you can look back and see all you learned, and how much TIME you put into it! It’s a crazy amount of work, and not something I’d be willing to put so much effort into. But it’s great, and look at the fantastic finish you’ll have! Love your siggie blocks too. They’re perfect.
That’s a major accomplishment! (FWIW, I like the border.) That’s a lot of piecing!
Congratulations on getting the top pieced. 80×80 is a large quilt, and there is so much detail there to look at and enjoy. I tend to get a lot more fond of quilts once they are finished… 🙂
Elizabeth, this quilt is absolutely delightful. I love it and it was fun to watch both of them come together. Can’t wait to see it all quilted up!
I love the star border! I struggle with the “I don’t like this part of a quilt,” until someone else says they do like it. I showed my guild board a baby blanket I’m trying to finish before Saturday’s shower. I hate the quilting (I’m not that skilled yet). They all loved it. So now I feel OK about the quilting. It’s funny how that works!
WoW! Congrats! Nice work!!
WoW!
I think it is wonderful. I don’t know much about Chuck Nohara so for me to see all those blocks with such color and excitement just amazes me. And I say the quilting always acts as the topping in the pie
I love it! What a riot of colour. And I like the colours you chose for the outermost border.
This is an amazing accomplishment and a beautiful work of heart and art. I’m coming late to the Chuck Nohara craze. Can you tell me about the book that you used for the patterns? My son is living in Japan now and I want to learn all I can about Japanese quilters.
Well, it’s just incredible! XO
Your Chuck quilt is very well done. I have the book and enjoy looking even if I never make a block design from it.
This is an incredible quilt. I love everything about it. Congrats 🙂
Add another quilt to the pantheon of masterpieces. Wow.