Friday, September 4, 2015

Nod to Gees Bend - Another Q3 FAL Finish!

Nod to Gees Bend is finished!! I have now finished 5 of the 7 on my Q3 FAL list with Adrianne over On the Windy Side!

I thought this quilt would be done months ago. . . and then I got distracted and Nod got thrown in the corner. . . Then, I thought it would be finished by last Friday. . . When I pulled it out of the corner, I figured out why I might have gotten distracted so easily. . . I had quilted squiggly lines (technical terms only here lol) in a 16" x 8" portion of the quilt. . . my husband told me, very nicely, that he didn't think it fit. I told him, probably not so nicely that I didn't care what he said, I was not ripping it out. . . That was pre-corner time. Fast forward to post corner time. He was most definitely right. It needed to come out. Maybe I was the one that was in the corner the entire time!! ;) So I spent several days ripping this:
Didn't take long to quilt. . . took hours to rip :( SOO glad I did though!
And then I sat and stared at the quilt. What next? This quilt has taken me completely out of my quilting comfort zone. Looking at this picture, can you guess why?
Yup, hung sideways... no wall on the property tall enough for the 76" length plus the additional three or so inches using pants hangers adds....
Yeah, ALL straight lines. And only a smidge (another technical term) of dense quilting in the negative space....
Diagonal rainbow color lines, meet horizontal rainbow lines :)
Only ditiching in the middle of the quilt... done with the FMQing foot and ruler, hey, I had to do something in free motion!!
I used YLI nylon thread again for ditching. Seriously having a love affair with this stuff!
And in the middle of the triangles....
I pondered for a very long time about what to put in the center of those triangles. . . in the end I just ditched them. The more I look at it, the more I like it. :)
I am still fighting the urge to quilt more...
Sometimes, you just have to listen to the quilt . . . and this one was screaming at me!
But I won't. I think it is finished. I think the fabric is the star in this show so I'll let it shine. Without my added thread ;) All of the fabric in the quilt (except the backing) is Oakshott Cotton.
Prisms again for the back :) This time in Grey. The crush on this fabric is not showing any signs of fading.... I may have ordered more today! :)
When it came time for binding, I thought I had enough of the dark gray.... not.even.close. Now what?? I pulled out the silk I bought at the Albuquerque Art Festival. . . hey, that's pretty darn good!
Looks pretty good in this picture. But when it was laid next to the quilt in just the double fold, it was just off enough in color.
Enter the grounded one otherwise known as my husband. When I showed him the fabric next to the quilt and then let him feel it, he literally turned up his nose and said "no." Alrighty then. His reactions are typically not that strong. I went with this one :) Now what?? Wait, I know! I had fabric left over from Off Course. The dark blue or the purple will work! After putting both of the darkest colors up on the board and explaining to the opinionated one that I wanted the binding to 'end it', he picked blue. I told him I thought purple. He said he thought purple until I said I wanted the binding to 'end it.' . . . OK. . . You may have noticed that I used both. You might wonder why. It was a design choice... made due to circumstances :) Turns out, I didn't have enough of the blue or purple to go all the way around. In the end, I think the fact that I didn't have enough of either color to go all the way around was a very good thing. I like how this looks :)
Not a bad seam match huh? LOL I have to admit, this part scared the bajeebers out of me but it wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it would be! :) Never mind that dog hair ;)
When I went out to take pictures, I tried to use duct tape on the wall so I could hang the quilt without the hangers. That didn't work. At.All. I was frustrated. I took the quilt back in the house and hung it sideways because I didn't want to get on the stool to hang it on the design wall. . . OMG! I love the way this looks when hung sideways!! I am now on the hunt for a wall big enough in this house to hang it and that is when I decided I would hang it sideways for its photo shoot! :)
There has to be a wall big enough in this house to hang this ;)
My favorite part? How the rainbow thread looks on the dark gray strip. . . swoon!
Aurifil 40 wt threads, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green. :)
I have been working on the stretch goal on my list - Sparkle Punch. I have all of the fabric starched, the background fabric cut AND the binding cut - not going be sprinting to the finish line and not have the binding sorted! :)

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and I'll link up with the Q3 FAL when that linky goes live. I am loving this goal thing! There is something about saying out loud that I'm going to do something that lights a big old fire under my beeeeehind! :)

Cally is coming tomorrow to visit for the week. I'll be working on Sparkle Punch but we also might be making another pillow cover - not a butterfly . . . it's too soon! :) She will move to her new home on the 15th of September. We will spend the week in the pool and maybe even at the sewing machine prior to her move. She's a little stressed. A little R&R is called for prior to this major change in her life. :)

Until next time, keep on quilting!
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15 comments:

  1. Beautiful, love the thread you chose!

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  2. That's just awesome your DD is coming to see you, I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy your visit no matter what you do.
    The quilt turned out spectacular! Personally I like that you used 2 colors in your binding.

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  3. What a gorgeous quilt, Judy. Kudos to you.

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  4. Wow, 5 of 7 complete?!?! You are doing so well, and I love how his turned out... But you know I do like a straight line quilted quilt, too. I hope you and Cally have a great and restful time together.

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  5. The quilting you did suits your Nod to Gees Bend quilt perfectly Judy! I really love the photos that show closeups of the colorful threads against the Oakshott cottons! It's a really cool improv quilt! Love the two toned binding too. Would silk have held up very well as a binding? I was curious if it would become brittle if washed. Anyway this is a fabulous finish - as they always are with your work!
    Enjoy your week of R&R with Cally, soak up some rays and some wonderful mother / daughter time!

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  6. That is lovely! I agree with the colours on the dark grey, it looks fabulous. Well done!

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  7. Such a cool quilt, and I love all the thread colors you used. And that backing - I'm going to have to get me some of that!! :) I hope you're enjoying your visit!

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  8. Congrats on your finish! I really like the contrast between the bold straight lines and the stitching in the ditch. The fun colors would be perfect in your home. Glad to hear you are keeping another quilt. :)

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  9. That rainbow thread is really lovley and I like the blue and purple- great design choice there in the end!

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  10. That turned out gorgeous!!! I love all the contrast in the quilting

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  11. What a fun and interesting quilt. Congratulations on another finish!

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  12. This looks awesome with all of the straight lines! But I totally understand it would be super tedious. I love the rainbow triangle quilting on the grey too!

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  13. Ohmygosh...all that picking was so worth it in the end! Mr. Opinionated was absolutely right that you needed to go in another direction with the quilting, and you certainly found the way! What an arresting quilt - one can't help stopping for a look. And then another!

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  14. You have a great score with your FAL list! Well done!

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  15. Wow - this is really stunning. Sometimes the projects that take us most out of our comfort zone are also the most successful. Great work on finishing!

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