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| Connections - 34" x 43" |
It's Done! The last binding stitch was put in on Thanksgiving night, while watching a movie with the DH, surrounded by our cats & dogs - most fitting I think. And just in time to be my entry into the NYC Mod Quilt Guild DWR Challenge, and in celebration of our 10th Anniversary coming up in January.
This quilt was fun to design and make, blending the old and new. While there are great acrylic templates available out there (and I even bought one), using it/them would have made this quilt fairly large - not what I was looking to do. We are planning on hanging this quilt over the front door so size was a consideration, not to mention I wanted the background to only be one piece. So, all of the applique pieces were cut by hand using cereal box cardboard templates (with special 'help' from a cat who tried to eat the arc template - ARGH!) and hand appliqued. The arrangement is modern/arty, the machine quilting was marked with silver pencil by drawing around the cardboard applique templates and the binding was the background fabric, wrapped to the back and hand stitched down. The fabric is all hand dyed Cherrywood cotton, in the Renaissance colorway, which has been in my stash for several years waiting for the right project to come along.
Yes - you are not imagining things - the rounded corners are of two different sizes and follow the curve of the quilted rings. Deciding on how to quilt this was the hardest part. I wanted to try so many different patterns - free form flames, hard right angle paths and boxes with different textures, sunrays, etc. - all sketched on paper, all of which ended up wadded up in the garbage can. Overthinking to the max!! I drove the DH to distraction with my frustrated drawings. Finally, I made myself go down the sewing area, set the sketchbook aside and listen to what the quilt was telling me. DUH!! I truly cannot imagine it being quilted any other way and me liking it any more.
Here's the back, blowing in today's wind. There's nothing like having beautiful sunshine - thank you - and a quilt flapping in the stiff breeze, except when you are trying to take a picture of it. The dogs were outside helping me but thankfully stayed out of my way.
The machine quilting was done on my trusty Singer workhorse, with the feed dogs up, using YLI machine quilting cotton thread.
This next picture is not the best (taken into the sunlight) but I liked the way you can see the colored arcs ghosting through the back.
Just need to add the label later today. I am very happy with this finish!
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| center rings up close and personal |
This quilt was fun to design and make, blending the old and new. While there are great acrylic templates available out there (and I even bought one), using it/them would have made this quilt fairly large - not what I was looking to do. We are planning on hanging this quilt over the front door so size was a consideration, not to mention I wanted the background to only be one piece. So, all of the applique pieces were cut by hand using cereal box cardboard templates (with special 'help' from a cat who tried to eat the arc template - ARGH!) and hand appliqued. The arrangement is modern/arty, the machine quilting was marked with silver pencil by drawing around the cardboard applique templates and the binding was the background fabric, wrapped to the back and hand stitched down. The fabric is all hand dyed Cherrywood cotton, in the Renaissance colorway, which has been in my stash for several years waiting for the right project to come along.
Yes - you are not imagining things - the rounded corners are of two different sizes and follow the curve of the quilted rings. Deciding on how to quilt this was the hardest part. I wanted to try so many different patterns - free form flames, hard right angle paths and boxes with different textures, sunrays, etc. - all sketched on paper, all of which ended up wadded up in the garbage can. Overthinking to the max!! I drove the DH to distraction with my frustrated drawings. Finally, I made myself go down the sewing area, set the sketchbook aside and listen to what the quilt was telling me. DUH!! I truly cannot imagine it being quilted any other way and me liking it any more.
Here's the back, blowing in today's wind. There's nothing like having beautiful sunshine - thank you - and a quilt flapping in the stiff breeze, except when you are trying to take a picture of it. The dogs were outside helping me but thankfully stayed out of my way.
The machine quilting was done on my trusty Singer workhorse, with the feed dogs up, using YLI machine quilting cotton thread.
This next picture is not the best (taken into the sunlight) but I liked the way you can see the colored arcs ghosting through the back.
Just need to add the label later today. I am very happy with this finish!
I love the idea of missing arcs and the quilting that completes them. So creative.
ReplyDeleteBarb@Witsend