Bohemian Wife Quilting

I've finally made a start on getting the Bohemian Wife quilt actually quilted. First I did the vertical lines. A lot of stopping and starting, but it worked out. Used the walking foot, it went very well. 

Then I switched over to quilting the quilt blocks. And it turns out, I really should have switched over the thread color I was using.  

The medium red/purple that I was using blended in pretty well with all those vertical prints and on a lot of the blocks. A lot of the blocks have straight lines, which are tough to do well with free motion quilting. 

So I got out my new ruler quilting foot and the ruler I bought to go with it. Definitely straightened up my lines a lot, (especially for my first time) but still not good enough especially with that dark thread. And a lot of the blocks use lighter colored fabrics as well which makes that situation even more apparent. The quilting ruler is on the quilt there, but it's quite see-through isn't it?

I pinned up the quilt on the design wall to see if it was even visible from a normal viewing distance. Nope, not really. 

But a couple steps away from the quilt and yikes on bikes! Just to me, it will always bug me. I'm not planning on entering this in any shows or competitions, so it truly doesn't matter. Except I'll know it looks bad and takes away from the look of the quilt I've spent so much time making. 

I will have to pick out a whole bunch of quilting and then switch over to a lighter color so every little but and squiggle shows up so plainly.. Sigh, still un-picking and trying not to just give up on this one when I'm so close to finishing.

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Ocean Effect Quilted

 

Ocean Effect is all quilted now. This is not exactly how the finished quilt will look, the edges are only folded under and pinned for the photo. I am glad that the angle didn't end up on in the corner, that was my plan and I'm glad it worked.Now to work on adding the other parts of the design.

Veering Off

As expected, the remainder of the quilting for Ocean Effect has veered off from horizontal or vertical or the established 45° angle. This was one of the things I was noticing in the Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park series. There always was a "reason" for any non-vertical or horizontal lines, in this case it's my green rectangle. Just like you can see on the surface of the ocean if there's a big enough rock underneath, a way of acknowledging the volume of something that takes up space.

  I marked out a lot more of these lines but haven't stitched them yet.

I think I'm going to stick with the very light green thread that I've been using. It's subtle enough that it's not fighting with the background fabric. 

Possibly Ocean Effect

 

The pin basting for the quilt in process that I'm working on had to happen before I did much more walking foot quilting. 

My trusty Parmesan cheese container of safety pins came out. This is such a tightly woven cotton, they had a little trouble getting through the fabric. Or maybe the safety pins need sharpening? Is that even a thing?

As promised I veered off from horizontal, using the corner of the green rectangle as my starting point.

I have postponed the decisions on the sheer fabric until tomorrow.

And then I went vertical for the section in the right hand upper side. So far so good.

I think the possible (maybe probable) name of this quilt is now: Ocean Effect.

Continuing the New One

I'm starting out the quilting/construction of this new quilt from the bottom up. There are two lightweight upholstery pieces (thank you FabMo), that are getting stitched down with fairly close lines of stitching. I chose a very light green rayon thread. I like how it pretty much disappears, reminds me of some of the Agnes Martin paintings I've enjoyed seeing at at SF MOMA. That works for me, as I wanted this piece to be a combination of things that I've learned from modern artists.

 After a couple lines stitched, I remembered to put my walking foot on, and that was working better. Stitching through upholstery stuff onto a finely woven cotton is a challenge, but I tried to take it slow at the transition point. I put on a good audio book (Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson) and my headphones and got the entire bottom section all quilted.

The last thing to add is the sheer, but I have to decide several things.

1. How to attach it, just at the top and leave the other 3 sides loose?
2. If I attach all four sides, whether to quilt on top of the sheer or not? 
3. If quilting it, change thread color and go with horizontal lines of stitching?
4. Do I keep the folded up (and thus darker) part at the bottom or not. If so, how to make the curve stay? (because I Really Like that curve). Maybe the stitching in the sheer could echo the curve?

I pinned up the gold part just temporarily to make sure it will still work in the composition. I am really glad I chose this hand-dyed piece for the background. It's an old one from back when I was first learning dyeing.

 I think I'll continue the walking foot lines of quilting, but probably will switch up either the thread color and/or the direction or spacing of the lines.

Still thinking up a title.

Trinket Quilting Stop

 

At first I thought I'd bought some Aurifil thread in the right color but then I realized it was a much larger spool, actually a pretty large 5,500 yard cone. I'm using this cone of rayon thread that I picked up off of the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day. The color is INTNS MAROON maybe that means Intense Maroon? I also picked up one in a lighter purple but that's too light. I wound bobbins so that it would match on the back.

Here's how it looks on the front. I'm starting out with just out of the ditch quilting along the horizontals. I did three rows out of sixteen. I think I'll do the verticals as well, and then we'll see from there on what else. Maybe a design of some type in the solid squares? X marks the spot or ???

It's not going to look perfect on the back of course, but also I need to remember that it's the back.
Alas, a tuck was stitched into the backing. I think I'll un-sew this part and re-stitch this part of the quilted line. I also have to face facts that the whole shebang needs to be re-ironed as well before I doing any more quilting. It just got too wrinkly in the storage box.

Trinket Quilting Start

 

I've just received clearance from my Studio Assistant/Manager to begin quilting Trinket.

I had quite the hunt for finding it the other day, luckily I'd left myself notes about how I was rearranging stuff in my workroom. It was safe and sound in one of the work-in-progress boxes.

Now I've got to figure out how to quilt this thing and find the thread I know I bought that matches the odd dark berry purple almost black background squares.

Gone in Circles

 

Back to hopefully finishing the walking foot quilting on Running Out of Raincloud. I want to do some piecing and I need to swap over the feet, so time to get this done.

Even though I didn't get it done in time to submit it to the quilt challenge, I still want to see where I'm going to end up with this one. After alllll those straight lines, it Needed Circles.

Yes, yes it did. It was hard going at some points to follow and echo the correct line of stitching.

The complexity of all the lines of quilting intersecting is really fun to look at.

Am I now done with quilting this thing? Maybe. Probably. 

Most of the quilt has more than one direction of quilting line, some more than four. But there is some space that only has one line of quilting. I think it's okay. It lies flat enough and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Really like the look of this circle. I think I"ll put the facing on and sit with it for a bit.

Nearly There

Now it's starting to look like I wanted, so I'm almost done with the quilting.

Will I get it done in time, who knows?

I really do like how it looks though.

So much texture!

Studio Assistant Exam

 

Well, some decisions were made on the quilting I'm doing to finish Running Out of Rain Cloud. I carried the quilting lines ofmustard yellow out into the adjoining areas to the corner triangles.  I did 15 lines out into the rest of the quilt. I really like how the various angles cross over with the vertical hot pink quilting lines.

I had my studio assistant come in and check my work to make sure I was on track.

He said the texture was acceptable for sitting on. He really seems to enjoy my new floor lamp, like it's his own little spotlight.

Okay, all that quilting work and it barely even shows up on first glance. Granted this is not the best lit photo I can take. I'm going to carry on with this quilting a bit more and then try some side lighting to see if the quilting shows up a little better.

More Color Choices

 

Now that the Running Out of Rain Cloud quilt had an allover horizontal pattern of hot pink lines quilted in, I needed more and different colors. I chose a thread that went with the other four colors in the quilt.

I did the first corner triangle matching the diagonal. I think it looks pretty good with the mustard gold thread just in the triangle. And what the heck is that spot? I hope I can get it out before I photograph this quilt!

Gives a really nice texture.

I think that t's a pretty color combination too.

Here's how it looks with all four corner triangles quilted on the diagonals. That was the easy part now for more decisions, like what to do with the corresponding light blue triangles. Also on the diagonal (with the light blue thread or the mustard gold?), or go for vertical lines instead. We shall soon see.

X's & O's

 

I hadn't shared a picture of the finished quilt that I worked on for BAMQ Community Giving. I did the quilting and the binding on this lovely design. I really loved these fabric choices and this great quilt design. I hope whoever receives the quilt enjoys it too.

As this is a lap quilt, I did fairly minimal quilting in the white sections, the triangles & squares, as well as the border. I like dense quilting for wall quilts, but not for something that's going to be on or near a body, I think that's just too stiff and not drape able to be pleasant. 

I also did my best at doing a self-border. I will confess that it is not up to competition standards shall we say? So, I hope that's okay, it's sturdy and will hold up to many many machine washings.  The backing fabric I got off the free table is so cute and I thought the yellow of it matched the bits of yellow in the other fabrics well enough.