ALYOF - June Finish!

Ah... isn't it lovely to finish things? Especially when it means keeping my 6 month finishing streak going AND crossing off the third oldest WIP on The List.

The particular step that was tripping me up on this one was the binding. I wanted it to blend with the quilt top and a matched pieced binding seemed like the best option. And the one that was the fiddly-est and most challenging.

But it turned out to be much easier than I thought... though time consuming. Is it perfect? Likely not. Is it done? You bet! #imperfectionism Many thanks to Scrapmaster Linda who gave me a helpful hint and some moral support!

 Some money shots of the quilting... because it makes me just so danged happy!

The back really shows the different colours of thread and the (many) binding bits. I opted to add hanging triangles to all the corners so I change the orientation when/if I like.

The Deets

Title:  Underwater

Size: 17½ by 24 inches

Konas Used: Baby Blue, Robin Egg, Peacock, Turquoise, Teal Blue (from lightest to darkest)
Quilting: Wavy lines in various shades of teal (Gutterman 202, 600, 616, 621, 640) 
Binding: Pieced binding matched to colour sections on quilt top. Hand stitched with Gutterman 618)
Backing: Kona Cloud

Favourite Part(s): Playing with wavy quilting and creating just the feel I wanted, Taking on the challenge of a matched binding

Read more about this project here, here, and here.

I was #51 on the Goal Setting Party and I'm linking up with this month's Finishes Party (yup... down to the wire again!)

 

Now what on earth will I choose for my July goal? Decisions, decisions!

J

WIP Wednesday - A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

 

Yup. The design wall about sums up what's going on in the studio this week. A little quilting ADD anyone?

In the top left, there's my Underwater quilt. Thanks to this tutorial helpfully offered by Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts, I've decided to do a pieced matching binding. Sadly, I haven't managed to find the brain space to get to work on it. Maybe next week...

Then there's a little Kona strip quilt...  it started out as this lovely pile of Konas. There's Breakers, Pool, Teal Blue, Caribbean, Azure, Ultra Marine, Bahama Blue, Aqua, Capri and Robin Egg. Let's just say there's not much teal/blue left in the scrap bin! 

The lower right is a little pillow I've been playing with... just needs trimming and to have the backing sewn on. If I'm lucky, I'll get out of the house tomorrow to visit my LQS and buy a pillow form!

And last, but certainly not least, the final blocks of Skill Builder 2014. So much paper piecing... so many itty bitty pieces. The iron has 48 separate bits. The sewing machine - 46! And the quilt block has 52. Go ahead... do the mental math. I'll wait.

Yup. 146 pieces in 3 blocks!!! But they're finally finished, layered, and ready to quilt!

All that fiddly paper piecing made me crave some improv. I also happen to owe a lucky reader (Kitty from Night Quilter) a giveaway prize. Off I went to my stash to find a print... then a root through my Kona scrap to match those lovely little dots.

More Konas... I know you're shocked. There's Cardinal, Kumquat, Wasabi, Peacock, Oasis and Violet.

Aren't you glad I didn't make you read 5000 words? ☺

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced. Pop on over and see what the gang's working on this week!

J

WiP Wednesday - Underwater

Apparently, January 2015 is the month of The List. This past week, I dove into my fourth project from it - Underwater. No, I wasn't sewing underwater. It's the name that this little piecing exercise gave to itself...

It's from an April 2013 workshop with Elaine Quehl. You can read about how I made those curves here.

I deliberated for a long time. To emphasize it's watery look, I wanted to create ripples of wave-y quilting. I also toyed with the idea of appliquéing a fish and some water grasses onto it. In the end, it seemed unlikely that I would be as satisfied with my appliqué results as my piecing results. And I couldn't think of a way to quilt the ripples without interfering with the appliqué. Did I ask you, dear readers? Nope. Didn't think of that at the time! ☺
So waves of quilting it is. First up, choosing the thread. Remember when I went all crazy buying thread for Honey? It really came in handy when I went to match these Konas!

To keep things straight (and avoid wasting precious quilting time), I opted to number my spools once I had matched the thread.

 Then I added painter's tape numbers to the edge of the project with the corresponding numbers.

Then I got down to the fun stuff! I opted for organic ripples of quilting. I didn't bother to FMQ these... the walking foot works well for this sort of thing. The lines of stitching cross over each other and the different colours of  stitching don't necessarily stay within the bands of colour on the quilt top.

I'm very pleased with the quilting so far. I might add a few more lines of darker stitching in the upper/lighter strata. Up next, binding....

I'm thinking of matching the binding to the layers of colour... dark at the bottom, working it's way to light at the top. It's gonna be fiddly as hell to match it up. What do you think? Someone please tell me there's an easy way to do this!

I'm linking up today with WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced, as well as...

J

P.S. If you haven't had a chance, pop on over to Monday's post and enter my giveaway! You've got until midnight tonight!