Friday, June 3, 2016

CiL Quilting - Another Finish

Another Friday, another finish!

Remember this quilt Kat sent to me to quilt for her Covered In Love project?
Well it is now quilted and most likely when you are reading this, it will be winging its way back to her! When Kat asked me to quilt this one (the blocks were made by Kat's bee mates at do. Good Stitches), my initial reaction was "Heck yes!" . . . and then I got the top. Holy moly people! This top is truly spectacular! I admit, I was a little scared to start! But start I did! I'm going to totally photobomb you and then I'm going to tell you about how I came to my quilting choices. Ready? Here we go!

My absolute favorite block :) 
And the back.
The shadows from the slated part of the patio cover. I probably should have waited until morning to take pictures but I was way too excited!!
 I just love this quilt! Kat and her Bee Mates did a spectacular job on the blocks, they were all beautifully done!

The quilt lived on my design wall for well over a week (I'm thinking more like two) while I finished up a couple of projects. When I first saw the top, my immediate thought was to go crazy with the free motion quilting like I did on the Blaze pattern test quilt or on Purple Haze. And then I got to thinking and bouncing ideas off of Sandra. The stars of this quilt are very obviously the paper pieced blocks. I didn't want the quilting to compete. And then I started looking at some of my quilting books and of course online. I was looking through Christina Cameli's book "Step by Step Free Motion Quilting" and hatched a plan. Wavy lines with a twist. Throw in a motif here and there to add interest. . . I let that percolate a little and drew it out on some easel paper. I put it next to the quilt top and asked my ultimate quilting advisor (otherwise known as my husband LOL) which he thought, flow or wavy lines. I think you know which he picked :)

I have come to love the wavy lines! Throwing in a motif here and there adds some interest and it totally keeps me from getting bored! haha

But lets go back to the beginning. The first thing I did was to ditch around all of the paper pieced blocks with a clear monopoly thread. Then I decided to do crosshatching in the blue zig zag. But, instead of the crosshatch lines following the block lines, I did on the vertical but on the horizontal lines I ran them perpendicular to the angle of the zigzag. If you look, you can see that this basically made for a more flattened diamond shape. Because the flower was kind of a part of the zigzag I decided to extend the crosshatching to the flower block as well.

OK, now to the end. A couple of those little critters really needed eyes. I debated with myself, and with Sandra on how to add them. I thought about applique. I didn't go with applique because I didn't want to hit the wool batting with an iron. . . I've said it before and I'll say it again, wool batting and irons do not play well together. I watched Youtube videos. I searched the internet. And then I decided to bite the bullet and dust off my very rusty embroidery skills :) I was initially going to use an 8 wt thread but that did not go so well. I could not get the knots to bury and there was no way I was going to risk putting a hole in the quilt. So I tried some black Aurifil 12 wt. Ahhhh perfection :) The knots were willing to be buried but they also do not seem to want to pop back out. Mr. Squirrel was done with a satin stitch and a running stitch. I added just little dots to the weasel, the fabric is dark so his eyes aren't real noticeable but he does look a little better with those little dots :) And Mr. Fox presented his own issues. I tried drawing on full eyes and I could not help but think that he looked like a demon dog. So I decided to do a satin stitch for him as well only on a much smaller scale.

And this one is a wrap! :) I am so honored that Kat trusted me to quilt this very special top. If you want to help out with Kat's project, you can participate by making a block (June's block instructions are up!), or 10, or a top, or a quilt. :)

For me, it is on to the next :) I still have a bit left to add to Purple Haze and I have not forgotten about the quilting post for that one! You'll be hearing from me again soon. I have decided that until that one is done, I do not get to start another project . . . I'll let you know how that goes!

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and TGIFF with Leanne over at The Devoted Quilter.

Until next time, keep on quilting!
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36 comments:

  1. A very unique quilt, love that pileated woodpecker. They come around here occassionally love watching them, amazing they don't have a constant headache, LOL So glad you added the eye's, they needed it!

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  2. What a fun quilt! Your quilting looks great! I have those crazy woodpeckers where I live now. I was shocked the first time I saw them because of how big they are! I wasn't expecting to see such a big bird hopping up the trees!

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  3. This is one amazing quilt and I can see why you where intimidated to start...but you really lived up to the challenge and did a wonderful job.

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  4. How cute! I love the curvy flying geese block the best. You did fabulous on the eys Judy! Sometimes, a simple quilting pattern is just right for a quilt. Ive found that a simple quilt looks best to me with more complex quilting and a more complex quilt looks better with simpler quilting. Of course, we are all different! But funny how simple quilting takes soooooooooo much longer than we thought...send it thru the machine ALL THE WAY...turn..send it BACK THRU THE MACHINE ALL THE WAY, turn...so much dang turning! But your quilting is, as always, great!

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  5. Awesome! Thank you so much from one of the Nurture Circle do good stitches group great job!

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  6. That woodpecker block is stunning! I really think your quilting enhances the overall design. Congratulation on another quilted finish!

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  7. Beautiful! It turned out stunning.

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  8. I was just telling my SIL that something magic always happens to a quilt when it is actually quilted. Thank you for making our Nurture Circle quilt so great.

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  9. Not too much, not too little, just right and Goldilocks would approve whole-heartedly too. You have quilted it to perfection, showcasing each part, truly lovely.

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  10. Those blocks are amazing! Your quilting looks great with them. It really defines them while at the same time allowing them to be the star of the quilt. Great job and thanks for linking to TGIFF this week!

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  11. I bought that book not long ago. LOVE it!! Haven't used it because I've been blogging about redoing my studio, but SOON the book will be put to use. You did a FABULOUS job interpreting the designs and the quilt looks GREAT! Oh... the block to the left of the big white flower is MINE. :o))

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  12. Hi! This quilt is fantastic! My favourite block is also the woodpecker and in fact that made me to start the paper piecing and finally I made the whole quilt and won 1. prize in the Forest QAL! I just happened to add the Deer in my today's post. Great work with the quilting! x Teje

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  13. This is perfect Judy. There's a fine balance in quilting when you want to enhance the piecing and yet do some beautiful quilting - and you walked that tightrope exactly right! The paper pieced blocks are each wonderful! (Love the shadowed motion behind the pileated woodpecker's head!) The whole quilt is a winner!

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  14. These paper pieced blocks are beautiful. My favorite is the squirrel and I don't even like squirrels!! And I love all the quilting. Great job.

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  15. this is a very unique and gorgeous quilt. I love the shadows on the back. cool looking.
    quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

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  16. This quilt is so cute. Your quilting is awesome. really enhances the beauty of the quilt.

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  17. I could not begin to say enough positive things about this quilt. Everything about it is perfect!

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  18. You was very busy paper piecing...Nice turn out...happyness04431@yahoo.com

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  19. Wonderful quilting and i just love tho quilt!

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  20. What a great quilt. Thanks for sharing how you quilted it. I always find it difficult to de idea how to quilt a quilt.

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  21. Your quilting is just perfect for the quilt.

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  22. All I can say is "Wowzers!" This is a beautiful quilt made even more spectacular by your organic quilting - great job!!!!

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  23. Oh, my, your quilting is so whimsical with the wavy lines and other motifs thrown in! And I love the echo quilting around the animals. Thank you so much for explaining how you came to the quilting decisions you made. That is so helpful to the rest of us. The pieced blocks are amazing. I was especially drawn to the shadow behind the woodpecker to make it look like it's pecking away. Again, your quilting really made it stand out. All around, such a lovely project for Covered in Love.

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  24. This Quilt is sooooooo Amazing!!! GORGEOUS!!! doesn't describe it!!! AWESOME quilting job as well! Thank you for sharing the pictures & explanations! LOOOOOVE IT! :)

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  25. This quilt is magnificent. But I'm sure you knew that :) Love your comments and don't worry about the shadows. We still can see and comprehend the beauty of it.

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  26. Oh Judy I love how this has turned out. I like that you can follow a wavy line up or down and come across something unexpected. The quilting really complements, instead of competing with, the quilt design. Fantastic job!

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  27. Your quilting really adds a lot to this neat quilt!

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  28. Wonderful quilt, no wonder you were hesitant to start. It certainly presented some quilting challenges. But you picked just the right thing--those wavy lines are so organic and natural, they fit right into the woodsy setting. Great job!

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  29. Visiting from BuzzinBumble. I love your quilting - the variety of designs really appeals to me.

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  30. What a lovely quilt! Thank you for sharing your process of how to decide to quilt a top. The quilting adds another dimension to a quilt, and you made the quilt sing!

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  31. Beautiful quilt. I love all the animals and your quilting is wonderful.

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  32. Beautiful quilting - really showcases the quilt.

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  33. I seriously love how you quilted this. And I always love when you share more photos.

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  34. This looks like such a fun quilt to quilt! I love all the special motifs you added, I bet those will be fun for the recipient to find!

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