Returning to Choices

 

Today I worked on finishing up the free motion quilting on May You Ever Return. Almost there, but I had to make some thread choices.

The different blues and greens in this fabric was hard to match.

As usual one of my Studio Assistants made sure I was "Making Good Choices."

Getting there.

This is my favorite X so far.

I was tired of free motion quilting, so switched over to get to some zig-zagging on the shapes who's edges hadn't been stitched down.

The words are supposed to be not really legible at a glance.

Almost done with the quilting and zig-zagging. (Just the lower left) and I'm really pleased with how it's looking so far.

Lots of Quilting Lines

 

A lot more free motion quilting got done on May You Ever Return yesterday. I'm very focused in on it, but I'll admit that I keep struggling to stop myself from switching over to work on other things like the Patchwork Palooza on my design wall or the Lupine Mystery.

After an initial alarmed response at all the noise near her napping spot, one of my studio assistants kept an eagle eye on my process.

The quilting is getting pretty dense in some spots. While I was quilting, I pinned back some of the un-anchored shapes in order to just have the lines go under where they'll end up being zig-zagged down. This will help with "floating" the shapes above the densely quilted surface in a consistent way across the whole surface.

No decision made on the number of X's, and I see some hand-embroidery/stitching in my future. Also, this quilt is getting the facing treatment as opposed to a binding. Countdown to the UFO Challenge due date of 2/7. That's just ten days, two of which will be traveling to Spokane and back again. Maybe if I get it to the finishing point of sewing the facings down it will come along with me, but I'm not counting on that.

How Many X's

 

Doing a lot of blue on blue free motion quilting. Still deciding on whether to add more X's or not. As there are already three orange ones, that likely means adding two more. On re-reading, my notes are a little unclear, so I'm going with what I see in front of me right now.

I've gotten all of the smaller pieces sewn down in their centers, so the majority of straight pins are now gone. I'm using safety pins to hold down most of the rest. That makes the quilt sandwich so much nicer to handle while free motion quilting.

Time for a thread color change.

Eleven days to go until the UFO Challenge deadline at Sew Day. Will I make it? 

Almost Out of Words

 

I concentrated on getting the words left to be stitched done yesterday on May You Ever Return. This is the before picture, mostly for my reference so that I can put it back in the correct position after I did the stitching. I switched over to a free motion foot and dropped the feed dogs so I could do the smaller cursive writing.

Here's the after stitching picture. I used a small width zig zag stitch. The smaller shapes have single words, intentionally written small and hidden. See the picture below for a before picture. So, I've stitched the words in a blue that camouflages them pretty well. And it's also done in a straight stitch, no more zig zag. I stitched them in place instead of taking each off and then repositioning.

There's going to be several more thread color changes needed.

And then...a mini disaster! A broken needle! That big pin was caught underneath in a folded-over seam. I thought I'd uncovered all of those, but apparently not. All the parts of the needle were found, and it was definitely  time for a needle change anyways.

Here's how it's looking so far. Looking more finished day by day.

And only one more section with words left to do. Then it's mostly free-motion quilting left to do which is a lot easier.

Off The Couch(ing)

Well, I lost at "bobbin chicken" and had to stop my couching efforts to wind myself a new one.

It's going pretty well now that I've gotten the hang of it. Very different than free-motion quilting. Also, I'm using a small zig-zag stitch as well.

Getting closer to the top.

And...done! Now to trim to the exact size, 24" w x 36"h and add some binding. 

 

Black and White Couching Spirals

 

After all that quilting, it was time for some quilt trimming.

I have a design drawn out that needs to be added to this quilt, so I decided to try some couching.

I'm using a black and white  two-ply twisted cotton baker's twine. This first part in the lower right hand corner is the most fiddly part.

I'm using a black and white twisted 2-ply rayon thread (Wonderful D-Twist) to do the couching. Last seen being used last year, on my Stretching Art & Tradition 25 quilt

This is working out pretty well so far. It shows up just enough, like a sketch.

Spring to Summer Stitching

 

All finished, here's all the thread colors that I used in quilting the challenge quilt for BAMQ. They look like Easter egg colors, don't they? Makes sense, as the quilt is titled: "Spring Speaking to Summer."

Some close-ups

These are very fun fabrics to quilt.

The bottom or summer part of the quilt.

And that's the whole thing done. Now to figure out what I'm doing for the edges. Binding or not? We shall see. I may try doing an envelope or facings instead.

Quilting the Spring

 

Today I got most of the spring section of my challenge piece quilted.

I used a lot of thread colors, but started out with a light grey/purple for the top flower section.

Then it was pink and purples for a bit.

Eventually some green too.

Then onto to a light blue.

Just about done.

I'll be switching over to orange for tomorrow to finish the Summer section.

Approaching Finishing

 Just a bit left to do on the "Our Mistake" quilt for Stretching Art and Tradition.

The newly-added lake waves are all done, so now it was time to break up the boat into dissolving-in-the acid lake pieces.

Very happy with how this turned out.

And there it is, now all that's left is to just add facings, a sleeve and a label.

And the Sister Artists quilt, "Structured Sky" has been trimmed down to size. This one will be getting binding, a sleeve and a label.

Final-ish Form

 

It was all green stitching today. That and going slowly to avoid sewing over the pins.

The green acid lake is looking turbulent enough.

I did chicken scratch quilting on the edges of each raw-edge. Blends them together well enough.

It was hard to cut off this part at the end, but this quilt needs to be 24"w x 36"h.

There, the background is all stitched. I did do some extra around the sides and bottom for the trimming to size.

The boat is the last part to stitch on, and the look of it will be quite different when I'm done.