"Sea" sick

While I was finishing all my UFOs I remembered a Storm at Sea quilt that was started so long ago that I can't even remember the date.  It was after I moved into this house, so after 1993, but long before I got my Juki sewing machine in 2001.  I think the diamonds were cut out using templates so it predates my serious entry into the rotary revolution.  I'm guessing early 1995.  The fabrics support this because they are in large part very early 1800's reproductions and plaids, and I remember buying what we now call layer cakes of both, 10" square collections, around that time.  The light background fabrics contain Thimbleberries prints and I was making a lot of Thimbleberries quilts back then too.  So, spring of 1995 at the latest.

That makes the project 18 years old.

Wow.

(Is there a prize for oldest UFO?)

Anyway - I remember moving this project when I sorted or relocated my stash closet, first in a cardboard box, then in a zippered plastic cube from the purchase of some sheets, and finally in a plastic storage bin neatly labeled.  I didn't remember how much I had done or even if all of it was there so last year I got the box down, sorted and counted the patches and bagged them by category.  I had made all the square in a square blocks but not the diamond in a rectangle sashing blocks.

Two nights ago just as I was drifting asleep I thought about the Storm at Sea quilt again and resolved to dig it out in the morning, which I did.   It looked scrappy and promising so it became my next piecing project.  I marked the seam intersections on all the diamond sashing block corners and sewed the lot of them, 60 in total, finishing this morning.  Finally I could lay out the center of the quilt and see what I had:

It's quite pretty.  HOWEVER - it's going to be a nightmare to construct.  First, because it was started on another sewing machine (which will affect your seam allowances no matter now careful you are - at least it will with me) and second because of that template cutting of the sashing diamonds and skinny triangles, which renders them slightly less accurate than I would have wished, not to mention what can happen when trying to mark seam allowance intersections and make the corners come together right.  There's some fudging to be done.  Perhaps a LOT of fudging to be done.  The thought makes me queasy.

I have joined two rows of sashing and one row of blocks and it's a headache, to be sure.  But I love the look of it so I will persevere.

Oh, yes - the edge has a border which consists of a row of blocks/sashing with the colors reversed - light diamonds with dark corners and single square in a square blocks with dark center and light corners.  It adds to the design but means that I have 54 more diamond sashing blocks to make later.  I wish they were foundation paper pieced, which is how I would attempt this design if I were ever to make another one.  The added accuracy is worth the trouble.