Shining Star

Oh boy how nice to have a large quilt done.  I did put the binding on my I hate it and I'm going to rip it out.  Anyone in the McHenry, IL area want to trade binding services for quilting services?  Send me a private email, would love to trade with you (s dot daurio at yahoo dot com).  A few details of the quilt.  I used wonderful Kaffee Fassett shot cottons, I love the depth and dimension the dark colors have.  I used to battings, one hobbs 80/20 and one hobbs wool, it really shows the quilting wonderful and has a nice weight to it.  Glide thread on top and magna glide bobbins.  I used three different rulers on this one.  One straight lines, one 13" curved cross hatching and Rhonda's double S curve small.  Solid off white on the backing. Here's some detailed pictures.  The full quilt can be seen here.  Oh almost forgot the size, it's 117 x 117 -ya that's one big quilt!!

straight lines in the light area, feathers in the dark

you can see the curve in the dark area that helped to make the area a bit smaller in the middel. The feathers are one sides and going in one direction

Here's how the corners look 

And there it is on my bed, love it. 

How did I come up with the design?  Oh boy purely by accident.   I knew I wanted feathers since this was going to be for me, love feathers.  But when I started to look at designs the plumes were really too large for what I wanted.  I also knew I wanted a design in different directions for the light and dark to give more definition to each area. The pictures show a decent amount of contrast, but in real life it's less.  I couldn't think of anything with feathers in the light area so after a few hours of trying to find something that worked, I tried straight lines.  At first I had them all coming from the corner, and then moved the center group up so there were as many intersecting lines at the corner (didn't even think about the star area or the points in the larger squares).  I started quilting, had 2 blocks done with the straight lines and hated it!!!  I thought, why am I doing straight lines when I really want feathers.  So I started taking the stitches out.  Oh boy have you ever tried to take stitches out of a quilt that has a double batting?  Sesh, I couldn't do it.  I spent almost an hour and didn't even have one block ripped out.  Needless to say, the lines stayed.  I would love to say the thought  was a stroke of wonderful creativity, but it was just the opposite.  A desperate attempt to make progress at any cost.  I did all the light areas first which gave me some time to think about how I was going to add feathers to this quilt without looking completely out of place.  I knew I wanted feathers going in one direction on each side of the square but again was stuck with how big they were going to be.  That's when I added the curves, that helped to cut down the size.  If I only did one side of the feather, I thought it might look more linear and work better with the lines that I really didn't want :)  Turns out in the end, it all worked out ok.  And this is generally how my quilts get quilted.  

What have I done since?  I found 3 different smaller projects in progress and started working on those, trying to get those shelves cleaned up!!  Her'e's the circus panel quilt.  I made 4 of these, thought I would get an early start to 100 Quilts for Kids. Don't forget all the linky parties on the side bar, so much inspiration and creativity out there.

That's one big quilt!

Oh my it's almost done, had to share, more pics once the binding is done. This is the largest quilt I've ever made, the binding might take a while!!

DWM - is it Spring yet?

Anyone besides me ready for Spring?  Soon, it won't be long now.  Shoot it's the middle of Feb, it's gotta start warming up soon.  I have something on my design wall but I'm not really sure about it.  I really wanted to do one of those HST quilts that goes all over with no rhythm or reason.  But I dunno, maybe it will grow on me.  I tried a few different patterns before I just sewed them all together and nothing really struck me as the one.  I took it as a sign that I really wanted that free for all look.  Now I've got it and I"m not really sure.  I think I 'll just stare at it a bit longer before sewing anything more.  Hmmm needs a name, how about HHST (Half Hazard Square Triangles).

HHST

While I'm staring I'll try to get some more done on this.  I have all the light parts completed and 4 rows of the dark.  Nine more rows to go. The dark is going a bit faster than the light.   I'm hoping when it comes off the frame I'll like it more.  I'm not sure I like the lines and the curves.  I'm hoping when all is done that the feathers on the dark will look more graphic.   We'll see.....I get the whole day to try to finish up the last of the dark rows.

Shining Star

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Happy President's day!!  Stop by all the fun linky parties on the side bar, something for all tastes and every day of the week. 

Design Frame Monday

Nothing new on the design wall this Monday.  But I did get in a finish, a real finish.   Here's the scrappy tumblers.  I used a new pantograph, Fern by Patricia Ritter.  It was fast, easy and has that feathery feel, what's not to love about that.  Batting is Hobbs Polydown, glide thread on top and magna glide thread on the bottom.  I'm so excited to have a quilt with a pantograph, I don't know why but I do love them!

Scrappy Tumblers - Poly down batting, glide thread on top

Pantograph - Fern by Patricia Ritter

love the texture

the back is as crazy as the front

And in the exact opposite direction from a pantograph, I have shining star on the frame.  Even though the pictures show a nice difference between the light and dark, it is a bit subtle.  So I want to differentiate the light from the dark in quilting.  The light is gong to have the strong straight lines, ya this is going to take a while.  I have to mark and use a ruler.  I think it actually takes longer to mark than it does to quilt!!  The darker colors are going to have some sort of feathers (surprised right?).  Actually I did three blocks with the lines and was trying to take it out.  But I have two layers of batting, wool and 80/20 blend and I just had such a hard time getting those stitches out that I gave up and just went with the lines!!  I like them better now that I've done a couple of rows.  Still thinking about the feathers, I've got some time to think about it.  I've gotten 4/13 rows done with the ruler work on the light colors.

Shining Star

This is gonna take a while....

Stop by all the linky parties to see what's going on out there, plenty of inspiration all over.  

Let it snow, more time for quilting!

I finished up a panel quilt for a shower gift for daughter #1.  I love panel quilts.  All you have to do is add a quick border at the most, then load it on the frame for some quilting fun!  I like to try new things on panel quilts, this time it was the semi-circle border, and I loved the results.   I also found that I like the stitching around applique with thread better than invisible thread.  I did invisible thread around everything, but when I was doing the rest of the quilting and needed to backtrack along the line of the applique (fake applique in this case :) that I really preferred the thread rather than the invisible thread.  But you know when I was little I always outlined in coloring before filling in.  I think it's really very similar.

I love pictures in the snow and we got 6 inches over night, another 6 or so on the way.  I tried taking a few shots but the snow was falling faster than I could setup the quilt and get a shot!