WIP: Colour Adventure Finished

I am a bit busy at the moment with various things, home and workwise, hence have not posted that much lately. Planning for a trip away in July, so am making a concentrated effort to get some things done.

This quilt is finally finished, except for the binding which I am currently attaching. Also a bit of a saga as I tried to do the binding a little bit differently this time (trying to be super neat...well that backfired big time. Had to take the whole binding off and re-straighten my quilt. Lesson learnt: stick with what you know/let go of that damned perfectionism!)

Here are some close ups of the quilting

Use of taupe thread over several colours - worked brilliantly!

Centre design - a bit more loft would have been good

Surrounding swirl design

Border designs and In-lining of the second border

Corner Treatment

The back looks great

Well, this certainly has been an adventure and a half...I must say I have learned heaps from this, first and foremost...Patience! This was not a quick piece for me and I struggled at times with my own impatience to get it finished. I had a very definite view in my head about how I wanted this to look and struggled to let go of some ideas that just would not have worked.

Overall, I am really happy with this and proud of my little achievement here but also a bit disappointed...unfortunately, the batting (bamboo) I used created bearding like there was no tomorrow and this was a real distraction while quilting but also impacts on the overall quality of the quilt obviously. Definitely will not be using that batting again.

I think I might be doing a Whole Cloth quilt next....just feathers ...that would keep me happy.

Linking up to Leah Day's FMQ Friday.

Karin

WIP: Colour Adventure Project

It's been a while that I linked up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. So here is how far I got along on the quilt that I called 'The Colour Adventure'...a hugely bright and bold quilt that was a bit of an experiment in colour placement. Got a bit very bright for my liking and is a bit out of my comfort range but I am in the process of finishing it off (I think I started this some time in January...ended up getting side tracked a fair bit starting several other WIPs).

 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Karin

WIP: Colour Adventure...Saga Continues

If you missed it, I posted about the saga of the Colour Adventure quilt earlier in the week (see the post Here)

I did ponder over my FMQ for a while...in the end I decided that the design was the wrong scale as well as quilted with the wrong colour. While it was beautiful in itself the design was competing with just about everything around it. This did not fit with the vision that I had for his quilt. For a moment there I also thought about going back to my initial idea of quilting concentric circles, however thought I better give myself a day or so to just look at it.

Anyway, I ended up sticking with the swirls design. Just had too much fun stitching them. However, I changed the thread and choose colours that just blend in. Also reduced the scale as this was meant to act as a filler and not an overall design.

I am now using Rasant, a matte Polyester thread as I was able to get most colours in that...for the multi colored sections surrounding the centre I used a taupe thread...I had read that this blends in well, so I thought I give that a go.  Had to look up 'taupe' in the dictionary as I was not even sure what colour that was. While I do not like the colour much, I must say it does blend in extraordinarily well.

This is how far I got...

Taupe thread for surrounding areas - blends in like magic



Red area next to star - now taking a backseat with smaller scale swirl and red thread

On left larger scale design still to be changed

Love the back

The quilting now blends in and just gives me the texture I wanted and the star is back to being definitely the centre of attention...just how I envisaged this. This quilt is so bold and colorful, the quilting really needs to take a backseat, otherwise it is just too much for the eyes to take in and you loose what you want people  to look at. As much as I prefer stitching with a light-coloured thread on dark fabric, it is just not appropriate for this quilt.

Would have been good if I had thought this through a bit earlier. Mind you, also discovered a new little trick to get rid of the stitching marks. Used the steam from the iron and just lightly hovered over the area without actually touching the fabric. The steam going through fluffs up the batting again and the majority of those little stitching holes disappear...good as new, was quite impressed.

Linking up to Leah Day's  FMQ Friday on the Freemotion Quilting Project.

Karin

Quilt Along # 34- Flowing Lines

It is Quilt Along # 34 on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. This is the Flowing Lines design.

As I have sashings in my practice quilt I decided to give this design a go in the sashing. The design itself was not that difficult, however the stitching-in-the ditch was. Really struggled with going sideways in the ditch particularly on top of the sashing where I could not see properly. So overall my focus was on the stitching-in-the ditch and my flowing lines were not quite as wiggly as I would have liked them to be. I think as soon as I approached the ditch I would already tense up...did a fair bit of cheating with stops and starts and undoing wonky stitching, as some of the in-the ditch stiching was positively outrageous and it showed up like anything with the white thread.

Flowing Lines design

 

Some wider than originally intended gaps





Swirl design in inner border

Also did the swirl with hooks design in the inner border. Works like a dream and covers a lot of space very quickly. This inner border is 2 inches wide and the design seems to be particularly suited to this. Has just become my new favourite border design. You can find this design in Angela Walters book 'Free-Motion Quilting'.

Until next time

Karin