Saturday, January 21, 2017

Three Quilts Finished!!

Can't help myself but start with another sunset picture.  I figured I would take them on our last day of really nice weather for a few days.  More at the end of the post.
I have been busy the last few days trying to finish the three quilts on which I had been working.  This is the Holiday Lights quilt.  You can't see it but I did overall loopy quilting in all but the big blocks.  I did some outline quilting of the snowflakes in the bigger blocks, creating snowflakes in the blank large blocks.  I am not particularly happy with the quilting.  I used invisible thread as there was so much difference in color and value.  Standing a few feet away you can't see the quilting which is the good part as I really wanted something that didn't distract from the pattern itself.  It is not clear what would be the best approach to quilting this.
This is the other quilt which I called City Lights.  I used a different approach to quilting this one (my first approach) and am not particularly happy with this one either.  I basically stitched in the ditch first between all the 4 1/2 inch blocks, avoiding the big blocks of color.  I went back and stitched in the ditch at the 2 1/4 seams, again avoiding the big blocks.  The big blocks looked lumpy so I went back and did some overall stitching of squares.  I didn't stitch in the black areas as they didn't show the puffiness.  The first quilt was bound with  dark green fabric and this quilt was bound in black.  I couldn't decide whether to bind them or to face them but like the containment that the binding provides.


Here you can see the finished Birds of a Feather quilt and also the quilting which I liked, unlike the other two quilts.  It kinds of looks like there are circles and doesn't detract from the birds.
Two more sunset pictures taken at the Ft. Fisher museum and also the basin (where I take my bird pictures).  I really like the sunset pictures where there is blue sky above which gradually turns to orange.  So far, haven't found a purple sunset but that is a goal!! 
This is the basin area.
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3 comments:

donaleen said...

I REALLY like your City Lights quilt. I think the big squares would look good hand quilted with big stitch quilting (using perle cotton). I am always looking for a way to do some big stitch quilting in a large quilt but not an overwhelming amount. Your City Lights really appeals.

January 23, 2017 at 11:19 AM
Elizabeth said...

Well, I do like to hand quilt but don't like to do it with hand dyes as the dyeing process fluffs up the fibers and they are difficult to quilt through, even thought the fabric thread count isn't particularly high. Also there were far far too many seams!! These are relatively small quilts (40 x 60) also, Nighttimes for the past three years I have been handquilting a wholecloth quilt -- queen sized. I only do it in the winter and some day it will be finished!!

January 23, 2017 at 11:43 AM
donaleen said...

Interesting. I do a lot of perle cotton size 8 quilting on hand dyes. I do find that cotton sateen fabric is the nicest to hand quilt AND takes the dye the best. I am still a novice dyer.

I also use a lot of Vicki Welsh (Colorways) hand dyes. And these needles: J&P Coats Crewel Embroidery Size 7. And Valdani size 8 perle cotton.

I am addicted to big stitch quilting.

January 23, 2017 at 11:57 AM

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