The Beach Party's On!

Well, it's finally finished - the quilting, the binding, the sleeve - the label to go and then it's ready to be packed and sent to Birmingham. I called it "Beach Extravaganza". We have some sun for a change today, so I took the quilt out for a photo shoot. Actually, perhaps there was a bit too much sun)))

I rather like how it turned out, although, as usual, I have some doubts. At least the trapunto effect has worked as I intended it to, the appliqué shapes really seem to be on top of the background pebbles (not sure it is visible in the photos, though).

And the quilting made the background somewhat darker as well.

A discerning critic (guess what she has tied around her head)

I had never quilted so much of pebbles before and it was really demanding, so I think I'll take a break from FMQ for a bit. As I have a few other quilt tops to finish, I decided to try some walking foot quilting on them.

Two of them look appropriately modern for some straight line quilting. One is the Rainbow Rose QAL and the other is a little quilt I made out of my prize fat quarter bundle - very different from what I usually do, but I love it for that)) Will tell the whole story soon.

 I have never done walking foot quilting (apart from quilting in the ditch), so it's a challenge and I want to set it as my One Monthly Goal for July.

I'm also linking up to Fabric, Thread and Yarn, Off the Wall Friday and Free Motion Mavericks.

This poor creature with damaged shell was brought to my attention as I was taking pictures.

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 5 and Bringing Back the Spring

This week's assignment in Modern Quilters Ireland QAL was to put together the top. So, that's what I did:

Now, Ruth suggested using a couple of appliqué ideas for the border or leaving it just as it is. This much negative space is something I'm not accustomed to, though I know it's one of the prominent features of modern quilt design. Besides, in my version, the star seems to melt away towards the edges, and that somehow adds to all the white. 

The borders question is connected to the quilting and binding question, for example quilting the white in a bright variegated thread (I have left from the bubbles quilt) could fill in the void. White binding would contribute to the glow effect, while bright one would keep it controlled. Lots of possibilities. All suggestions welcome)))

Although I'm turning ideas about finishing this quilt in my mind, I couldn't bear to let it occupy my makeshift design wall, so i covered it with a new project which I have conceived back in early spring when magnolias were in bloom all around Dublin.

This photo was taken near Howth Castle, but I have taken many others as well as looked for more professional ones on Pinterest. Finally, I made a full scale pattern from my sketch and auditioned the fabrics. After 3 (three!) bright rainbow projects, finally something more subdued, just greys and pinks:

I've been collecting those greys and pinks since spring)) Looks like I have enough pinks now (I had quite a few before that idea hit me, so many are just leftovers, but that's ok, because the flowers are made of smaller parts). The greys are mostly new fat quarters, as I don't often use them, and I think a couple more would be welcome.

This piece is going to be all curve-piecing and it's quite large - a meter by a meter and a half - probably the largest of my "art" pieces so far.

Linking up to Rainbow Rose QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland, Fabric, Thread and Yarn at France Nadeau

P.S. I'm still working on quilting my beach extravaganza, the finish is looming, but I ran out of thread today((

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 4

In fact, I finished the central star, this week's assignment, on Friday, but then I decided to replace some fabrics in the previously completed parts, so it had to wait. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take good photos today, but wanted to be in time for the link-up, so here is the result:

In fact, this exercise helped me analyze my stash and I discovered that, although I have a nice range of colors, they are mostly in medium value, and I have few of the very light and very dark ones. So, I started to address this problem in my recent couple of visits to fabric shops)). Having bought some pastels, I decided to amend those pieces of the outermost circle that seemed most offensive. I replaced two and moved one triangle in the red part.

Another thing I learned in the process is that working with very light tints is more difficult - adding a lot of white to colors makes them really similar. I guess the same is true for dark shades, but in this example the darks were in the center so I needed fewer of them.

As I mentioned before, getting a dark shade of yellow is difficult - when you look at the yellow wedge you can see the value gradation, but the yellow in the central circles is obviously lighter than other colors. As far as I remember from reading about color theory, it's ok, it's just the characteristic of this color, but for the sake of consistency, I should have probably make it more brown.

Linking up to the Rainbow Rose QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland.

River of Dreams 2016 Quilt Show

So, yesterday I made a trip to Limerick to visit my first quilt show here which also has my first show quilt - "Pasque Flower". Here it is in the context of the show:

I was persuaded to pose for a photo with it, although I was dressed for the bus and not looking my best ;))

Now the bragging is done, let's talk about the quilt show itself)). It took place in the magnificent setting of the Limerick School of Art and Design. The gallery interiors are really imposing:

The quilts are mostly more or less traditional - pieced, appliquéd, hand- and machine-quilted, ranging in size from huge king-size (or more) to exquisite miniatures. The halls are also decorated with fun arrangements of patchwork birds.

Here are some of the quilts that caught my attention:

"Fuinneoga" by Karin Greyling

"El Dorado" by Monica Walsh

"Santorini" by Maureen Talbot

"Tickle my Fancy" by Ann McInerney

"Striped cubes" by Tracey Edwards

"Peacock" by Regina Moloney

The photos below show Tomomi McElwee's quilt from Modern Quilters Ireland Quilting Bee 2014, with has absolutely stunning quilting (every block is different):

"Bookshelf" by Tomomi McElvee

"Bookshelf" by Tomomi McElvee (quilting detail)

"Bookshelf" by Tomomi McElvee (quilting detail)

Another beautifully quilted piece, this time hand quilted. The photo is not that clear, but the quilting lines run around the polka dots and along the zigzags in the fabric.

"Whacky Tula" by Tineke Nuyten (quilting detail)

You'll never guess the size of this beauty:

"Flower Trellis" by Gwen Cottis

It's 11'' squared, actually! The strips in the central blocks are less than 1/2'' wide! There are a number of other beautiful miniatures as well.

This is by no means an exhaustive account, the show is really worth seeing while it's still running))

The lovely ladies "on duty" at the show were really helpful and one of them (the author of the magnificent peacock above) even drove me to the Limerick Quilt Center - a real treasure trove of fabrics and supplies. I stocked up on some sale fabric and then had to get back for the bus.

I didn't have any extra time time to wander around the town, besides it was drizzling off and on all day, but I did manage to take a couple of photos of the iconic King John's Castle:

Seashells on the Seashore - WIP

My beach quilt is in its final phase - quilting. I had the process planned from the very beginning and expected it to be tedious, but it is turning out harder than I thought, so I'm taking a little break to stand back and consider.

The idea is to make the sea creatures pop up from the surface, so I used the trapunto technique: first added a layer of batting to the top and stitched around the edges in the FMQ mode, then trimmed the excess batting around the appliqué shapes very carefully with sharp little scissors (though I did snip a couple of stitching threads in the process, I managed not to cut the top fabric...phewww).

I also added a few quilting lines on shells and turtles to add more interest to the large shapes.

Then I put together the sandwich with really fun fabric I chose for the back, basted and prepared to quilt. The obvious choice of quilting design was pebbles, but I also decided to strew around some seashells. Here is a little sample I made to try it out:

The hard thing with trapunto is that you have to stitch around the appliqué shapes yet again, at the same time trying to keep the pebbles looking natural in the small spaces between tentacles, legs and tails )))

Here is how it's going at the moment:

Not perfect, but thanks to the thread color which blends with the darkest spots in the background, the mistakes are less obvious than in the sampler above ;))

Linking up with Off the Wall Friday and Free Motion Mavericks - and off to do some cutting and piecing to relax))

Unbearable Lightness

My first hand-quilted piece is finished!

It has been a fun journey that started with a piece of fabric with bubbles on it, which I bought just because I liked the colors and for a long time could'n figure out what to do with. I didn't want to cut it up into small pieces))

The next step was playing with triangle-graphed paper, sketching some possible designs for English paper piecing. When I drew a couple of intersecting circles, they reminded me of bubbles and I immediately thought of that fabric. After finalizing the design and choosing the rainbow fabrics, I started the EPP. It's interesting to consider that all in all in this project I used freezer paper in three different ways, and each time it made the process so much easier. I think I'll have to write a special post about it ;))

Anyway, the finished EPP shape was appliquéd to the pieces of background and then I thought (as I wrote previously) that it had so much handwork in it already that it would be a shame to machine quilt it. Thus, I embarked on my first hand quilting adventure. I decided to quilt circles in variegated thread - another way to represent bubbles (which makes it a triple bubble quilt - I first wanted to name it Double Bubble, but the quilting ruined the pun)))

This photo has more shadows and so the quilting relief is more visible

Even while I was quilting I started looking for a suitable binding - something that wouldn't "promote" just one of the colors, but would have some variation and some fun in it as well. I had no luck in several shops until I decided to visit a sale at Fabric Matters, a nice little shop in the opposite end of Dublin from where I live))) The trip was well worth it, as I not only found the perfect binding for this quilt, but also binding for another WIP and generally stocked up on beautiful fabrics for planned projects at a discount, which just warms my heart)))

Here is another view with more shadows, to make the quilting stand out. See how the binding picks up the colors from the background? It has almost all of the colors in the quilt, except orange. By the way, the stitch that attaches the binding on the right side is the only machine stitch in the quilt, in the back the binding is hand-stitched))

I think I'll call it "Unbearable Lightness", though it's not final yet.

So, now I'll link it up to Let's Bee Social and Fabric, Thread and Yarn and on to work at another near-finish.

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The Road without End

One of my curved piecing samples is finished - complete with a sleeve.

I first wanted to quilt it all in simple curves like the hills, but the fabric in the road had a kind of cracked pattern, so I decided to support it in quilting, and then the central part of the road needed some grass. I don't quite like the quilting in the sky, it looks too busy for such a serene scene. Though in fact, in taking this picture I tried to make the quilting visible, whereas in fact it's not at all that pronounced as the quilts is hanging on the wall now.

The border is quite with more abstract curves and in a dark thread to set it apart from the main scene. I wrote more about the creation of this piece here.

Every time I was working on this piece - from the sketch to the quilting - there was one song running in my head, it's called "The road without end"and it comes from an old Russian film about Nicolo Paganini.

Linking this post to Off the Wall Friday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 3

Look what the postman brought yesterday!

A pretty pink parcel with my prize from the first week of the Rainbow Rose QAL - a lovely fat quarter bundle with a sweet note from Amy:

Thank you Ruth from Modern Quilters Ireland for organizing the QAL and thank you Love Fabric shop for the wonderful prize! This is Cotton Candy collection by Dashwood Studio and it has lovely colors (the dark one is actually more of a deep teal, though in the photo it looks more like navy) and fun modern prints. I am now thinking hard about a design that will do it justice. It will have to be something modern (and probably something Irish - do you think Irish chain is too obvious to consider?)))

This week's assignment was piecing the corners. I stuck to my layout with a minor change - having identified a lack of pastels I bought a piece of light yellow and another of light green (at a sale - bingo!), so I was able to use them. I am so glad that in this week's "theory" Ruth tackled the problem of value, exactly what I am struggling with)). 

So, these are my blocks (sorry for the photo quality, it was raining on and off the whole day, I did my best shooting them indoors):

And this is how it all looks together at the moment, the outer blocks, the two lightest circles in my value gradation:

Link this up to Modern Quilters Ireland QAL.