Saturday, April 27, 2013

Ocean Waves Away

It's done! Putting it in a show was the incentive needed to finish Ocean Waves. This is one of the few quilts  I've made without a border. It looked odd at the show but looks great on the bed.

Queen-size Ocean Wave quilt with green,blue and tan scraps.

There are no photos from the beginning of this project but I started with lots of light blues, pinks and greens. Eventually I found this fabric in my stash which seemed to have many of the colors 'She Who Wore White' wanted.

Fabric (by Fabric Traditions) used for binding & color selection.

All the cut fabrics were placed next to it. Any (but not all) that didn't look good in this new color scheme were discarded. Then I added medium and dark blues, teal, greens from yellow-green to blue-green, darker browns and a few mustard, rusty orange, purple and black. Fabrics didn't have to match but they had to blend with the others. The lights run from white to tan. I like how the bright whites "pop" - something unexpected. Almost every print style is included: Civil War, 30's reproductions, baby fabrics, batiks, modern, stripes, plaids, geometrics, florals, etc. No solids, although some may appear to be.

Pebble quilting on muslin
Pebbled quilt edge

Feather quilting on muslin
A section with lighter triangles

With so much muslin on the front, the back had to be muslin to prevent shadowing. This is my first time using a wide fabric (108") for a back. I doubt I'll ever do it again. Although it is nice to have no seaming, it didn't have the same the quality. Ocean Waves drew up more than other quilts I've made. The top was 102" but after quilting it's 98". I'm uncertain if the cause was the thread, the backing, the construction or the heavy quilting. On previous quilts I've tried everything except the wide backing so perhaps the looser weave on the backing caused some of the shrinkage.

I free motion quilted with white YLI 100 weight silk on top and beige Soft Touch 60 weight cotton in the bobbin. These fine threads require shorter stitch length. (Thicker thread need larger designs and slightly longer stitches.) Make samples before starting.

Fret not; enjoy the day.

Ann

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