Leftover Pieces and a Shadowing Problem

I decided my leftover pieces needed some applique in the middle...

I must admit that I hate shadowing (when a fabric that is darker shows through a lighter fabric).  Here's what I tried to do to the yellow fabric to fix the problem.  I added some extra decorative stitching.  I didn't like it.  I ripped it out.

And I tried again.  I ripped it out.

Then I decided that it wasn't worth it and I left it.  Shocking for me, but this ISN'T a show quilt so I just left it.  And it's okay!  You can't see it unless you look closely or know where to look (which I suppose you all do now...oh, wells!).

For these outer green leaves I tried doing my blanket stitch as a single instead of a double.  I used a 28 weight Aurifil with a 50 weight in the bobbin.  It worked great and you can tell the stitches are thicker.

Here's what the block looks like all together.  Yes, there are purple threads I haven't cut yet over those red pieces.  I love the way purple, cheddar, red, and lime play together.  I come back to this color combination a lot.

Here's the blanket stitching on the purple.  I like that it's slightly darker.

Come back Wednesday for the big reveal!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

A Shadowing Problem

I've been working on a little applique project and am having a blast, but have encountered a shadowing problem.  Shadowing is when the fabric underneath the top layer shows through and you can see a hint of color from below.

So look at the picture above.  See the large orange petal?  Okay.  Now, look closely at the edge of it closest to the red rim around it.  See how the orange is darker in those spots?  That's shadowing.  Huh.  Now the question is how to fix it.

The first thing I decided to do was to layer a second piece of orange fabric over the problem.  This helped a lot.

If you look at the orange above you can see the problem is solved with the orange.  However, when i added the yellow I had the same problem.  I double layered the yellow and it is still a problem!  What to do?  I really didn't want to add a third layer since this isn't a show quilt, so I decided to stitch the yellow in a really wide blanket stitch so it wouldn't show so much....

If you look at the picture above you can still see a rim of red near the yellow.  I decided that no one would notice this except for me.  It's not a show quilt, so I'm okay with it.

Here's another picture of the quilt in progress.

Come back Friday to check out my Brick Wall Free Motion Quilt Along!  And Saturday to see how I quilted this quilt.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Opposites Attract and Shadowing

I love using opposites on the color wheel.  They really pop when you do.  This block prominently features blue and orange.  It all started with the light blue fabric with orange and yellow dots.  I then picked out fabrics to coordinate.  I love using the outer petal fabric, the yellow with orangy-pink lines making a grid.  It gives an interesting texture to the petal.

When making this block I had some trouble with shadowing.  Shadowing is when one fabric shows through another and creates two different colors.  If you look carefully at the block below, you can see a faint line about 1/8 inch away from the top edge of the orange petal.  The light yellow and the gray behind the orange petal show through differently.  It's faint, but I couldn't stand it so I had to fix it.

To do this, I cut a new orange piece to layer on top.  I took a second piece about 1/16 of an inch away from the original line to ensure the original piece was fully covered.

I then layered this over the original piece as shown below.  It will be a little thicker, but when using double blanket-stitch it isn't a problem because the thickness of thread hides the two layers.  This works with both Steam-a-Seam 2 regular and lite weight fusibles.  The line is gone.

If I know ahead of time that shadowing is going to happen another alternative is to line the piece in white fabric.  You use one piece of white that is 1/16 of an inch smaller than the original piece and then the original piece on top.  The white fabric helps to block other colors from showing through.  I have found it is equally effective to use two layers of the same color.

Now back to the stitching....

• Outer Yellow Petals - Polyneon by Madeira - I love the sheen of this thread and it is really silky and easy to work with.
• Inner Light Blue Petals - Deco-Bob by WonderFil - It turns out this thread is 80 weight, who knew?  I love it.  It behaves well and is easy to use.
• Light Yellow Central Petal - Polyneon by Madeira
• Orange Central Petal - Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread - I use this thread all the time for piecing quilts and machine quilting.  I admit I own 90% of the colors (few browns and grays as I prefer bright colors).  It has very little lint and it takes me a long time to use up a 1422 yards.  Since it is 100% cotton it has no sheen, but for this orange I really wanted a flat look.
• Dark Blue Dot - Fufu thread - again, I love the texture and shine of this thread
• Orange Dot - Aurifil 50 weight cotton

I am having so much fun trying out all my different threads.  When I start my next project I will definitely be thinking about what I want to use a flat thread on and what I want to really shine!

Suzy