Wanta Fanta – Finished!

No. 5 of my Finish Along List for Q3 is finished!

Today Wanta Fanta and I went on a trip to the “Alter Elbtunnel” (The Old Elbe Tunnel) to celebrate the finish with the final photoshoot. I was thinking hard on where to photograph it. But nothing really made me think of Wanta Fanta – whatever that actually means…

So I choose the location, because it is an important Hamburg site. The only relation is far-fetched: Both are old – the “Alter Elbtunnel” and my quilt project :)

In the first picture you can see the beautifully tiled entrance to the stairs. The next picture shows off the quilt on the railing of the stair platform. You can see two of the four elevators. If you count the wood panels you can see that the center ones are one panel wider.

This quilt started as my first bee project in 2016 with Quilty Circle of Bees. I was queen in May/June 2016 but then in October 2016 decided to sell tickets for a raffle quilt. I collected “a lot of money” and send of the raffle quilt to its new home.

I had used up most of the blocks and had only a few left, but I loved the design, the colors and I sure wanted a quilt of my own. So back to the cutting mat to make up the loss of blocks for my own quilt project. But as happens to most of us, the project got left behind. I do not know why, but it was more than a year later in Oct 2017 that I started on the blocks again. In that month I finished all blocks and even finalized the layout.

And as you might take moment when you stand on that platform, to watch the elevators and to look down…

The quilt also needed another moment. More like almost a year! I guess it was because the final layout had me picking out a few seams as a some fabrics didn’t play that well with the others. And yes, I love my 1.0 stitch length for paper piecing but it is a pain to unstitch.

I pulled it out this summer because the colors so perfectly fit one of the fabric stack challenges. And now it is finally done and I am sooooo happy!

Here is another full shot: This time in front of the elevator doors at the bottom of the shaft.

You can see the quilting surprisingly well here. I did a straight line through the “orange peels” as well as curves around them. Additionally there are vertical lines that repeat the shapes: curves and diamonds.

With its two 6 m (20 ft) diameter tubes that connect central Hamburg with the docks and shipyards south of the river Elbe and a length of 426 m (1,398 ft), 24 m (80 ft) beneath the surface the Old Elbe Tunnel was a technical sensation. But the special feature is, that there are no ramps. People, bikers and cars are transported down via elevators!

This made the “short” distance possible. In comparison the normal, new Elbtunnel is 3.325 m long.

The tubes are tiled and have special glazed terra cotta ornaments that depict things related to the Elbe.

This is the North building and you can see the four lanes where cars drove into the elevators.

I went down via the stairs and used the “car” (freight) elevators to get back up.

Here is another, last shot of the quilt after I left the elevator cage. Unfortunately there are no picture of the back (yet). You can find a partial one on Instagram, but all the ones from today didn’t “develop” nicely. And I was out of energy to ask people to hold my quilt :)

For the full documentation I will probably take a front and back one at home. But first I need to buy new painters tape…

The Old Elbe Tunnel is currently being repaired. One tunnel is finished and open to the public – for pedastrians and cyclists; cars (except for emergeny vehicles) are not permitted anymore and might not be even after the project is completed. The second tube is currently closed. Heavy foot traffic and probably bad camera equipment or none-knowledge meant I didn’t get a nice shot of the tubes. But I love these ones on wikipedia: One & two.

I hope you are also doing well on your last minute finishes for the Finish Along. I might or might not try for another one :) Still four days left…

Best wishes
xo Melanie

So far this quarter …

Linking up at
Beauties Pageant 51 @ From Bolt to Beauty
Q3 2019 Link Up @ She Can Quilt
Favorite Finish October @ Meadow Mist Design

I will link up with the 2019 Finish Along hosts