Finishes I can share
Wow, this has been a long time coming and it is finally finished, even the binding. Pre-quilting it was 88″ x 106″ and one of the largest quilts I have made. It’s hanging on it’s side from the front gutter of my house and resting on the sidewalk.
The fabrics I used were Northcott Banyan and my favorite muslin. It was the first time I have used the Banyans and I’m not sure how much I like them. I love the rich colors and the feel of the fabric, however it has more stretch than I am used to. On the other hand, I love how it washed up. There was no bleeding.
The entire quilt is paper pieced which made for a quick and accurate finish. My patience was reaching it’s end while working on the outside border blocks which is why I began there. Any time I have blocks I know I’ll tire of they’re where I start. Knowing much easier blocks will follow keeps me on track and I have fewer UFO’s.
The design is my own.
I love how the center turned out with the stretched triangles forming flying geese. It may be a design I revisit in the distant future. Perhaps a square quilt instead of a rectangle, I don’t know. What I do know is, it was a very long way around this quilt when binding.
Batting is Hobbs 100% cotton. For quilting I chose to add feathers in the red around the center and cross hatching in all the white. The real work was outlining all the triangles. This was the most ruler work I have done on any quilt and I am feeling more confident with ruler in hand.
Here’s another first, I used Superior Threads MasterPiece for quilting. Until now I have always used Signature with an occasional KingTut and SoFine when my machine cooperated. Now that I have found a thread that my domestic and longarm both like I can weed out some of the other threads to make room for additional colors of MasterPiece. When I purchased my longarm I set a goal to use the same thread on both machines. I’ve tried multiple brands, they all worked well on the Juki but not so much on the Gammill. After adjusting tension slightly and adding a thread net I was quilting away.
Finish # 2 is this cute little panel I quilted and bound for a friend of my niece. Does that count as a finish since most of the work was already done using the panel?
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will come back on Thursday and link to Put your foot down.
See what others are working on
View links to other Island Batik Ambassadors
Hi Denise, congratulations on your finishes (yes, the panels count!) You have done a great job on your flying geese quilt. That’s quite the achievement to design a paper pieced quilt of that size. I think that starting with the more fussy (or frustrating) parts is a really good technique, which I will try to remember. Thanks for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks. You are the featured quilt this week.
Thank you. It really does help you move through the more challenging/mundane sections. Thank you for the feature, wish I had something to share this week. It will prob be next week before I can share anything.
Congratulations! Wow, two finishes! That is so awesome. Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.
A total of 4 complete this month, which means I need to clean. grrr
The quilt is gorgeous! The border in particular is incredible! And yes, all finishes count.
Thank you Michelle
Great quilt – I especially love those triangle units in the border. They really add a nice spark!
Thank you, my fave is the center.
I love your original quilt design, Denise! It has a real antique quilt flair to it, you know, those antique quilts that look startlingly modern? That’s what yours makes me think of. I’d love to see it on a bed, too — does that center section sit entirely on the top of the mattress or does it spill over the edges? Great job!
Thank you. Hmm that is a good question. I’ll have to look at my measurements and get back to you here. It’s the muslin I use for the backgrounds that adds that vintage feel. I love vintage quilts and that yellowed fabric. Aside from the Island Batik challenges I use the same muslin on almost every quilt top. If I made it and it has that creamy background, its a 200 thread count unbleached muslin. I love it, it blends well with batik and plain old quilting cotton,
The very center design inside the red border is 3′ x 5′ so it sits in the middle of the bed.
That is a wonderful quilt design! And what a good idea to start with more difficult blocks first to look forward to the easier piecing. I’ll have to remember that!
Thanks, yes it works every time for me.Thank you for stopping by, I don’t think I’ve visited your site before so I’m going to look around.
Great idea to simplify the thread selections – I am trying to do that too. I’m slowly using up my Mom’s stash of whatever threads on doll quilts and misc. piecing, but my goal is to have one thread to use with everything. Your design is beautiful – great finish!
Thank you. I’m thrilled being able to use this fine of thread since I’m still a newbie to longarming. I haven’t quite mastered backtracking and stitching in the ditch, mostly outside the ditch. Thank you for stopping by.
Hi Denise! Are you really asking if that counts as a finish? Of course it does!! You f.i.n.i.s.h.e.d. it, didn’t you?? HAHA! JK! I do love that panel – reminds me of the tractor my dad gave me when I was a wee kiddo. I wish I still had it now. And your big quilt finish is fabulous. That is one BIG quilt – gutter to sidewalk – holy moly. Good job on quilting it. I just adore the center piece. Those red triangles – they are special and look fabulous. ~smile~ Roseanne
Thank you Roseanne, its new owner said it is “bad ass”. That is a compliment by the way. I can’t wait to share the table he is making for me in exchange for the quilt, it will be such a nice addition to my sewing space. Thank you for your kind words on the big quilt, I will be sad to see it go. The little quilt felt like I was cheating.
The quilt is lovely. Congrats on the finish! I tried to use Masterpiece thread on the long arm and could never get it adjusted right. Talked to the folks at Superior and they said it isn’t really for long arming, made specifically for piecing. Ok… I’m a bit envious that you can get it to work on your Gammil. I usually use So Fine it works well for me. I don’t really try to use the same threads on both domestic and longarm sewing machines. Although it would probably cut down on the variety of threads I have!
Lacking storage I try to multi-purpose as much as I can. Believe it or not in order to use SoFine on the Gammill I have to play with tension A LOT to get it just right. With MasterPiece it was so quick and I thought it would shred or break often. On the large quilt I had a couple thread breaks but it was because the thread jumped out of the tension spring. For the little quilt there were no issues at all. To say I am pleased with this is an understatement. I also have a cone of MicroQuilter I want to try as well.
Nice finish, your precision piecing really shines with the contrasting colors.
Thank you so much, this has been a popular quilt around my house with family and friends.
Great quilt! I agree that Northcott fabrics have more stretch than others. I try to use them on projects with just straight seams, not triangles, since the stretch on the bias is hard to deal with. But they are very soft too!
I’ll keep that in mind now that I know.