Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Peace

Peace

I named this quilt Peace, as that was what I was thinking about while I made her. Peace in more of a personal peace and quiet, calm and restful sort of way. She was made from Kona cottons and Essex linen borders and binding. After a wash and dry she is about 44" square.

AmysCreativeSide.com

I am entering Peace into the Original Design category of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. This pattern is called Consider and it is my newest quilting pattern. I am hoping it will be ready for sale in a couple of weeks or so. It is inspired by the work of Josef Albers like my pattern Canvas was.

Peace

I wanted to play with a new to me kind of matchstick quilting. So instead of the mostly straight lines I often use, I made the lines noticeably wavy, sort of like wind, water or woodgrain.

Peace

I used 100% cotton thread in both the needle and bobbin. I hand guided, free motion quilted these lines on my Millenium longarm quilting machine. From time to time I changed to another thread colour.

Peace

The texture on this quilt is fantastic after a wash and a dry. The quilt is full of movement, like a calm, warm summer breeze or gentle waves at the beach.

Peace

This quilting could be easily done on a regular machine as well as the long arm and on my regular machine I would probably use a walking foot. As shown in the picture above, I would draw a line about an inch or so out from the last quilted bit and then fill it in.

Peace

It's a little easier to see the quilting method in these next few before the wash photos. While I filled in that inch or so of unquilted area, I would follow the top and bottom lines of the space, without worrying if the lines were even or terribly neat or if they crossed in the tight areas. Sometimes I would loop back and forth in a wide gap making a shape much like an onion.

Peace

If I felt there was too wide a gap between two areas, I just quilted another line into that area. You can see that there were areas where the thread built up and then some wider spaces which create so much of the texture.

Peace

As no part of any quilting line has to be any exact place, it means that most any wobble just fits right in. The more that is quilted the more any wiggles or wobbles disappear. Truly, this is very easy to achieve and looks so much more difficult than it is. But patience is important, there are a lot of lines.

Peace

That photo above is also before the wash. Although you can see the quilting lines a bit more than after the wash and dry, for me the design process is not completed until that final texture the wash gives is added - you can compare this picture to the ones at the top of the post.

Peace - back

Here is the back. I am growing very fond of backs with large pieces of some favourite fabrics.

Peace

One last picture with the wind catching the quilt. I am off to enjoy all the fantastic quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I hope you will be too.

Best,

Leanne

ps. My giveaway of the she can quilt blogger's bundle sponsored by Fabric Spark is still open, go here to enter if you have not yet done so.

33 comments:

Nicole said...

It's beautiful, Leanne! The colors, the minimalism, and of course, the quilting! A nice variation of matchstick.

~Diana said...

Stunning Leanne! Definitely your colors, right? It is just beautiful!

SewPsyched! said...

Wow! Is it possible to love this even more than Canvas??! I adore it! And I love the new 'onion' style matchstick quilting! XX!

Debbie said...

I was just thinking what SewPsyched expressed above. Wow. The beautiful quilting gives the simple pattern such life. Perfection!

Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts said...

Love the quilting! I am going to break out of my boring mold and do it!
Myra~

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

The quilting is the star of the show in this route for sure

Susan said...

I am in AWE of your amazing quilting Leanne! As Di says, it is definitely the star of the show!

Cille said...

It's stunning Leanne - top notch :)

audrey said...

Absolutely gorgeous! The stitching is fabulous.

margaret said...

Leanne the way you have quilted this is wonderful it flows beautifully,

Catherine said...

The quilting is just right. So much texture and movement.

Catherine said...

It's a lovely quilt - the colours are beautiful, and your amazing onion/wavy quilting gives it such a great texture.

pennydog said...

I think the quilting really conveys the peace side of things- like gentle waves on a lake...

Hannele said...

It's beautiful - harmonic colours and restful wavy quilting!

Michele T said...

I love your Peace quilt... It is a beauty!!! The quilting is gorgeous too!

Kat said...

I love the quilting!

Unknown said...

Absolutely love the quilt and the quilting. Will have to try this.

Kris said...

This is peaceful but that quilting is fabulous!

Vera said...

The texture is fab! The whole combo just works really well together.

OPQuilt said...

I love the description of your quilting, a good mini-tute for how to recreate that elegant and flowing look. I like the quilt both ways--both before and after the washing, but you are right--it is easier to see the quilting before it is washed. It's simply beautiful, Leanne.

Elizabeth

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

Oh, I love it! The quilting is like being on the beach - it reminds me of ripples on the sand!

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

P.S. How soft is it after washing? Snuggly enough to wrap round you on the settee?

Mary said...

Love it, Leanne!

Marlene said...

This is wonderful. Love the way you have quilted this Leanne-certainly creates movement. This might have knocked canvas off the favourite perch.

tusen said...

I love it. The quilting and the texture it creates is just amazing. And you've used one of my very favourite colour combinations.

AnnMarie said...

Love, love, love the quilting and texture it creates!

What Comes Next? said...

I love the texture of this quilting!

Diane M said...

Gorgeous!

elle said...

LOV this even better than straight lines which I luv.

Michele said...

Wow. Another fantastic design. Nicely done.

Anne / Springleaf Studios said...

Wonderful texture!!

Sheila said...

Fabulous quilting.

Crafty Coffin said...

While I love the design and colors, the quilting is what truly makes this special. I also love the way it crinkled up after getting washed.