Saturday, April 7, 2018

#AdoretheSchwarz

The first wedding quilt is done!  And delivered, so I can share.  Finally!  I'm thrilled I had enough fabric to do the cornerstones in blue instead of espresso (when complete, all I had was a 2x8" strip left over).  It's such a small change, but I think it makes a big difference in the overall look.

Added bonus - the snow melted and the wind died down long enough to photograph the quilt in my favorite spot.

Lots of photos - all the stuff I wanted to show off while making this quilt.

The pattern is a disappearing nine patch done on point with sashing and cornerstones.  I love how a relatively simple pattern can be so stunning.  I was inspired by a version done in black, grey and red.  This started with some light coffee colored fabric, which evolved into browns with blue highlights (unwittingly pulling a similar color scheme as Sunshine).

Flimsy with lots of extra overhang.
Instead of proper setting triangles, I made extra partial blocks that hung off the side.  I hoped the extra fabric would help keep the quilt's shape.  I stay-stitched it before sandwiching it, just to make sure the bias didn't stretch.  I trimmed the excess after I attached the binding.  

All those points along the edge were interesting.  I briefly considered what it would look finished like that until I considered binding all those corners.  Yikes!  As it was, the binding was time consuming, hitting the points on all of those squares.  Ripped and restitched a lot of it.  It was worth it - I have long rows of pointy points against smooth binding.  Nice.

I love trimming after binding.  Look at that clean straight edge.  That's almost as satisfying as hand-stitching the binding in place.  Ah... a finished quilt.

For quilting, I chose an all-over pattern.  A few weeks before I started piecing the quilt I saw this motif.  It stuck with me; reminded me of flowers and paw prints.  Lots of curves to go with the blockiness of the pieced pattern.  I tried out two other designs and this one always felt the best.  I've learned to go with what feels good, even if it's not what I originally had in mind.

Although it felt like the best design, it was a real stretch for me.  All my prior large-area freemotion quilting has been on small items like placemats - with a small pattern and area.  This, on the other hand, was SO BIG.  I was nervous - I had the quilt all set up at the machine, but then paced the room for a full 30 minutes before forcing myself to sit and start quilting.

I'm thrilled with how it looks.  Working through the middle of the quilt wasn't as difficult as I feared.  The first several repeats of the design were large; it was hard to see what I was doing and difficult to control.  I had convinced myself it needed to be big to prevent the quilting from being too dense.  I shrank it a bit as I headed to the first corner - it became about three quarters of the original size.  Suddenly it was easier to see where I was going and I had better control moving the quilt.  And the design was still plenty large enough.

The dogwood thread I picked worked well - it disappeared completely on the medium brown fabric and didn't jump out on either the espresso or pale fabrics.  I stitched myself into very few dead-ends.  I love my Singer 15-91 - the bobbin fed evenly, no snarls or skipped stitches.  I worked about an hour at a time, until my wrists got tired.  The whole thing took five sessions.


I was elated when I finished quilting:  I found only only pucker.  It was right up against the binding which was easily picked out, ironed and eased back in.  Then I photographed the quilt... and found two clear folds in the middle of the back.  Curses!  I managed to bury threads right next to one of them and never even noticed.  They were minor but bothered me enough that I pulled out and eased the stitching back in.  There's a few puffy spots in the back.  Still, I'm quite pleased with my experience of attempting a pattern this large.

I named it #AdoretheSchwarz, from one of the hashtags used at the wedding.  Other names that popped into my head sounded silly. 

Sharing with:
Freemotion by the River: Linky Tuesday
Sew Fresh Quilts: Let's Bee Social
My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I get a Whoop Whoop?


7 comments :

  1. It turned out super nice. I applause your efforts of FM quilting in on your domestic 15-91. That's quite an accomplishment.☺

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  2. WOW! AND WOW! AGAIN! This quilt is lovely - the colors, the piecing, the quilting! Wow! Thank you so much for sharing! Congratulations on a beautiful finish!

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  3. What a beautiful quilt, in every aspect! I am so impressed with the way every bit of this project was considered as part of the whole, from the very beginning to the veriest end of the last thread. Yet you are not locked into a plan, and are able to "go" with what feels right to you as the work progresses. CLEARLY this method is working for you, Sally!

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  4. It looks fabulous! The pieced design, the colors (love those blue cornerstones) and the freemotion motif all come together beautifully.

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  5. Mmm...brown and blue. Yummy! I’m fascinated by the way you extended the quilt design to the edge and attached the binding before trimming. That worked beautifully! And the quilting compliments the straight lines of the pattern so well. I love quilts made on old workhorse machines. Whoop whoop for you!!

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  6. Hi Sally,
    What a lovely finish and I'll bet the bride and groom just love it. So nice to snuggle under such love stitched into the quilt each night. I AM SO IMPRESSED that you quilted this yourself on your Singer!!! I would have been way too scared to tackle that myself. You did a lovely job - your quilting looks wonderful on the back, and only one or two puckers is fab. It sounds like you fixed that issue easily. Great job!
    ~smile~ Roseanne

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