Blog Quilt #3 - Beginning to Quilt

I have started quilting on Blog Quilt #3 - I really do need a title.  Perhaps something about thread thickness?  I don't know.  Let me know if you have any brilliant thoughts.

Since the quilt is very colorful, I wanted to make the quilting quiet, but I still wanted to be able to see it.  So I chose a thread that was a slightly darker gray than the background color.  It is a 50 weight Aurifil Cotton thread.  

I decided to quilt all sorts of circle motifs in varying sizes and fills.  Sometimes I did a circle, or a swirl or other motif inside the larger circle.  I also decided to do some feathers between the arcs because I actually find them easier to do than circles in that small a space.

Here is what I have done so far.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish this weekend!

Suzy

Earring Inspiration

One of my lovely coworkers, Michele, was wearing this lovely earring the other day.  It would make a great applique pattern or quilting design.  You could put a block in the large circular area, a flower or something.  Or you could fill it with an interesting fill pattern.

You never know when you're going to find inspiration

Here I drew a rough drawing of Michele's earring and duplicated it using my trusty mirrors.  This definitely has possibilities, but needs refinement!

Suzy

Blog Quilt #3 - Size 60, 80, and 100 Thread

Sometimes I like to use really fine thread to blanket-stitch with.  I use it when I want a really fine line or when I really don't want the thread to show.  You can tell that the thread in the far right picture is really fine.

The thread on the left is YLI 60/2 cotton thread.  The 60/2 means it's a 60 weight thread and it's made of two pieces of thread twisted together.  The thread in the middle is Wonderfil 80 weight Deco-bob.  It's shiny and great and very thin.  The thread on the far right is Wonderfil 100 weight Invisifil polyester thread.  It's very fine and wonderful to work with.  

The picture above shows all the different weights I used in this project.  40 is on the left, then 50, then 60, then 80, and finally 100 weight.  You can tell the difference in thickness.  It will be nice to have a sample to look at when I'm choosing threads for projects!

Suzy

Blog Quilt #3 - Size 50 Thread

The two rainbows below are both stitched in 50 weight thread.

The left picture is stitched in Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread.  The right is stitched in 50 weight Tire silk thread.  The Aurifil is cotton, so it has a flat appearance.  The Tire silk is very shiny because it's silk.  You can see from the pictures above they are both about the same thickness.

One thing I have definitely noticed is that when stitched in a high-contrast thread every little error shows.  Good to know!  Usually when I use contrasting thread it's only slightly different in color so any imperfections don't show much.

Suzy

Rex Ray Inspiration

At International Quilt Festival this year I took a class from the amazing Jane Sassaman.  As a part of the class she did a slideshow of inspiration.  One of the artists she showed to us was Rex Ray.  I was immediately drawn to his work.  It has a very quilt-like quality to it.  You can see this in the images below.  There are lots of thoughts and ideas going through my head when I look at his work.

Oh the visions in my head as I stare at these....I hope you enjoy!

Suzy

Blog Quilt #3 - Size 40 Thread

I decided to stitch all my rainbows in royal/navy blue thread and to blanket stitch each one in a different thread.  That way when the quilt is done I'll have a sample I can look at of some of my threads and their varying weights.

The pink center is stitched in Wonderfil 40 weight rayon.  The red/orange center is stitched in Fufu polyester embroidery thread in 40 weight.  The turquoise center is stitched in Glide poly 40 weight thread.  They all work lovely.

What I love about using a 40 weight thread to do double blanket stitch is the thickness you get.  While I was stitching these in the contrasting dark blue you could really see every error I made in stitch direction, which is good to know, especially for beginners....math the fabric or vary it slightly as you're learning.

Suzy

Blog Quilt #2 is done!

I finally finished quilting Blog Quilt #2 this weekend!  I really like the way it turned out.  The rows of straight feathers making a background fill are interesting and create a lot of texture.  Hobbs wool batting is inside the quilt and it definitely makes the feathers pop.

One thing I learned in making this quilt is to be careful about your backing. The backing on this quilt is a solid yellow, but it's very thick and the stitches didn't always sink into the fabric like I wanted them to.  Sometimes they just floated on the surface.

This quilt also marks the first time that I did a circular binding.  I used a single fold  bias binding and it turned out quite well.  I marked a line where I wanted the edge of the binding fabric to be, then followed this line in sewing it on to the quilt.  Then I trimmed the quilt to a circle and sewed the binding to the back.  It needs blocking to make it lay flat and it needs to be washed because I used blue wash-out marker.

Overall, I am really happy with this quilt, but now I have to figure out how to hang it!  Hmmm.........

And, oddly enough, the more I stare at the outer quilting, the more it starts to look like carpet padding.  LOL.

Suzy