Third Finish for the FAL2016

Finished my Japanese Panel (Robert Kaufmann - Imperial Collection). The panel itself is beautiful and I used it to play around with my new Ultimate Background Stencils from Cindy Needham.

In terms of process this seemed pretty simple, just mark it, quilt it! The stencils of course made this very easy and quick to do...what I did not count on was the effect of the grid quilting on the rest of the panel. As I was quilting along, I realised that the trees started to puff out and needed some attention. So, what started out as a pretty straightforward task turned into much more intensive quilting...I went into each tree and loosely followed the clams that were already in there which took a bit of time. Also realised that the cranes needed outlining which I ended up doing with a gold thread...again, nothing major, just all took a bit longer than expected. The other thing that turned out a major hassle was quilting with a black thread on a black background...impossible to see properly even with very good lighting!

Must say that I was bored with this panel...it seemed to stifle my need to freemotion quilt...somehow I found it too prescriptive to follow the contours of the picture...in the end I had a section left in the middle which I freemotion quilted with a design from Leah Day's blog... 'Sharp Stippling'...well, it was supposed to be Sharp Stippling...not sure I got that right. Never mind, looks good anyway and on the black background it translates to just texture.

Took the completed piece which will become a wall hanging (still need to attach a sleeve) for a bit of a photo shoot this afternoon. Found a really nice spot in the neighbourhood reserve with an old wooden picnic table...perfect for photographing quilts! And bonus...involves a bit of a walk to get there, so exercising ticked off at the same time.

Cranes In Flight 23in x 41in

 Another shot where you can see the quilting a bit better

All quilting done on my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2 using Aurifil 50/2 thread in various colours
I used three different types of grids in the panel
- the Twisted grid placed in a vertical orientation
- the Clam Shell grid and
- the Three Lines grid on the bottom

Apart from that there is some Sharp Stippling in the middle and some pebbles in some smaller areas on both sides. All in all I think that this all works well together.

I really do like the Three Lines grid on the bottom...so simple, but so effective. This will be so useful for borders. It gives this really definite texture.

So this is my third and final goal for the FAL2016 with a month to spare. My original goal list can be found HERE.

Linking up to Eleven Garden Quilts for the 2016 FAL Quarter One Link up

Obviously have not got my timing right in terms of what I can achieve however wanted to go easy and not make it not attainable...I had said in my first write up that I would start tracing my Wholecloth project onto fabric if there was time left over, so this will be my next task. I am actually quite chuffed with my progress...if it was not for the FAL2016, this would have definitely not been completed by now.

Karin

Trying My New Toys

While basting my baby quilt the other day, I got my wall hanging ready for basting as well, trying my new Ultimate Background Stencils from Cindy Needham.

Ultimate Background Stencil Collection

Marked part of the Japanese panel that I acquired at the last quilt show with the Twisted Grid (Papa size) stencil.

Twisted Grid

Had watched Cindy Needham's YouTube videos and placed the Twisted Grid vertically (the stencil has a horizontal and vertical alignment line) which gave me this great sense of movement which will look fantastic for the sky part of that wall hanging. Not sure whether I should have maybe used the smaller size...there was just so much choice! The marking was done with a thick blue water soluble marker and went like a dream. How did I ever do without these stencils...what a time saver! As this is just a little practice piece, I was a bit sloppy with alignment at times, however this was easy to correct and ultimately will not show. I am now debating whether to stitch this freehand or with the walking foot. Also not sure whether I am going to fill it or not...quite like it like that.
For the rest of the panel I used the Mama sized clam shells...and maybe I will throw in some Bamboo stencil. As I will be stitching with black thread on a black background this will just be texture. This should be fun!

While I was playing around with the stencils, I realised that these stencils could have a multitude of uses, not just background, i.e. my Triple Line stencil could easily be used for my Tumbling blocks quilt to fill in the individual blocks...very useful indeed.

Now back to the basting for me...

Karin