Bloggers' Quilt Festival (#2 Tranquility)

I posted this tee-shirt memory quilt in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. At the time I was thinking that I needed to post a recent quilt. Geez, you'd think I could think. Nope.

So anyway, choosing a second quilt was a little difficult. I like every one I make. Some more than others, of course. Tranquility is one of those more-than-others quilt. 

Lots of things about the quilt surprised me: the lime green worked, the background that looks different from my expectations, and my crazy, changing quilting motifs. Some of the motifs I came up with on the fly, right out of my own little head! 

All of it works so well, it's startling. I've promised myself I'll make another of these. (Maybe I should display it so I don't forget.) You can read more about Tranquility here.

    

	Quilt Stats
	Name:	Tranquility
	Size:	55 X 60
	Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics from stash
	Background:	Kona taupe + various scraps
	Binding:	Kona bison
	Pattern:	Improv blocks
	Quilting:	Custom free motion

Pop over to Amy's quilt festival. It's amazing how many beautiful quilts there are. The inspiration!

Tranquility ~~ a finish!

A finish, a finish. [Sing it with me, y'all]. A finish, a finish. It's the one that I wrote about here.

Finally, after sitting on the WIP table for months, then sitting on the long-arm waiting for thread and sitting while I cruised through Leah Day's website looking for quilting motifs, finally it's done. Done sitting, maybe? Ugh, no, now it's waiting on a photo shoot. 

I just couldn't wait to show you, so I had Richard hold it up...in front of his shed where dust and dirt were flying. Also, I realized too late that I hadn't even removed the markings. Yes, yes, I'm a mess. But I have a finish!

I wasn't liking those scrap taupes and beiges in the background... until I saw the pictures. Somehow they seem to float and throw shadows on the quilt. Don't be fooled--everything is pieced into the top and every inch of this baby is quilted, with the exception of the lime green bars and the smallest of taupe "droppings." 

I haven't counted how many different quilting motifs are on the quilt, but I really should do that if I can. Check out one little piece.

C

Quilt Stats
Name:	Tranquility
Size:	55 X 60
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics from stash
Background:	Kona taupe + various scraps
Binding:	Kona bison
Pattern:	Improv blocks
Quilting:	Custom free motion

Linking up with

My Quilt Infatuation

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Crazy Mom Quilts 

Leah, thread, and a WIP

A couple of weeks ago I loaded a WIP that's been sitting for a while on the "to be quilted" pile. I had a fab time learning and practicing new motifs. Leah Day's quilting design gallery is my go-to inspiration site. She has 500 designs--imagine! 


I've written about motifs from her website here on "Crazy X" and here for "Math Is an Expletive."  Looking through the motifs and choosing the ones I want to try is a great pasttime when sitting in waiting rooms. In the past I'd draw the motifs on paper or a white board to get some muscle memory going, but now I just stitch. 

Sometimes I end up with a crazy mess, but those seem to disappear once I have lots of other quilting around them. I'm not much of a detail nut, so I tend to see the whole picture. Quite often one of her designs will inspire something new and different from me. That is pretty awesome!

Anyhoo, (sorry Leah's website is definitely a squirrel) I was almost finished and ran out of thread. I didn't even see that coming. Really, I was rolling along and suddenly I was not. I found another cone that was really close in color and decided to use that. But that did not work for long--I ran out again! Nothing in the entire studio would work after the second cone. Believe me, I tried.

That meant ordering thread online, and it came in today! 
If all goes well I'll have a finish in a day or two. Thanks to Superior Threads (not an affiliate) for their excellent service and prices. 
I love the thread.

I've purchased from Superior Threads at quilt shows, but this is the first time I've ordered online. Their website is user-friendly and talk about convenient since it just appeared at my door. That means I didn't have to haul thread around with me. 

As computer savvy as I think I am, I'm not much for shopping online. Are you an online shopper? If so, which companies do you use for quilting supplies?

Modern Monday: Math Is an Expletive ~~ complete!

A finish!  This fun little modern number really didn't take long to wrap up.  The bigger problem has been time constraints and foul weather.  The binding is the same Kona turquoise that I used to frame each block.  

Math Is an Expletive

Finally, with a few minutes of pretty weather and freedom, I pinned the quilt on the line outside and we played photo-shoot.

I wanted to include some math-y stuff in the quilting, so I came up with this way of "writing" on the quilt.  Since the letters couldn't connect they way they do in script, I first outlined the letters and symbols.  Then I stitched horizontal lines very, very close to each other right up to the letter outline.  In some places the stitches are touching.  The only problem, I'm not sure that what I included as math is correct!  How would this girl know?

I separated the negative space into large blocks and quilted each block in a different motif trying to alternate between curvy and boxy designs.  I wanted there to be lots of energy and movement, but I also wanted to entertain myself since there is so much negative space.  

Some of the sections are large rectangles; others are small squares.  I visited Leah Day's website to get ideas for new quilting motifs.  I chose three or four that I really liked and drew them out on paper first (not pretty) to remember the basic shape, and then practiced on a small whiteboard that I keep in the studio.  Once I felt that I had a little muscle memory set, I just dug in and tried them on the quilt. 

If I make sound easy, I don't mean to.  I put quite a bit of time into practicing each motif separately, and I used each one in a small area.  This way I could hide the imperfections with all the other things going on around them.  Akin it to one imperfect leaf on a shrub...you don't notice it because you're looking at the whole shrub and seeing all the leaves.  Plus, if you happen to notice the one bad leaf, you chalk it up to nature.

Back of "Math Is an Expletive"

Your turn: what is your way of adding to your repertoire of quilting designs?  How do you practice them?

Modern Monday

"Math is an Expletive" is almost done!  Binding and label are all that's needed.  Those will be on tomorrow (God willing) and I'll take pictures (God willing and the weather cooperates).  These pictures were taken while the quilt was on the long arm and this afternoon when I showed it at our guild meeting despite that it needs both binding and label.  

I figured out how to write letters and numbers on this quilt so that I could include a few math problems.  Nothing is solved, mind you.  I'm not that good!  This one says, "(x + 3y) 2.  I have two more but all of them have an embossed feel.  

I also used lots of ideas from Leah Day's website.   

             

I highly recommend her work.  She has over 400 different designs on her site.  Of course, it takes time to go through them all, and I haven't done that yet, but one page shows about 20 pictures just like the ones here.  That allows me to look quickly at the designs and pick a couple that I want to try.  Clicking on the link takes you to a page that explains how to recreate it.  Some of them even have video clips.  The designs are arranged in alpha order, design families, and difficulty level.  In other words, it's a very useful site.

That's me in the pink shirt and black pants.  The quilt I'm showing is "Math Is an Expletive."