Friday, June 12, 2015

Big Quilt Flimsy Finish

All done. Well, not ALL done, but I do have to celebrate the finish of the Big Quilt flimsy. It's really hard to photograph at this point. And then, after I took the first picture, the photo card door was open on my camera, and I lost a few other pictures by the fence. I didn't realize it until I downloaded them. At least I got another on the grass. I think when I get it quilted, I'll borrow my neighbor and her high deck and get a proper picture, but you can get an idea of how the quilt top looks here. It's in kind of a fragile state, and I didn't want to move it around anymore. 

That's my husband, He really didn't want to be in the picture, but even with only a light breeze, the quilt was a sail, and he needed to keep it from blowing away. I told him I'd crop him out. Right. Couldn't do it without cropping the quilt. But I think what shows of him is fine.

And now to quilt. But how? I think I'd like to do straight lines (maybe 1/2 inch apart) down the pale gray patches on the edges to emphasize the angles going out from the middle, but beyond that, I'm really not sure. Maybe more of the same on some of the patches, with other designs here and there? I'm thinking of using a gray thread throughout. Here are some things I have to consider:

--I'm quilting it on a domestic machine--my trusty treadle. 
--My experience with machine quilting designs is fairly limited. Mostly, I've done meandering, but I've also done some squiggles, a little bit of flowers and some scribbling. 
--I have a walking foot, but I haven't used it yet for quilting (only binding).
--This quilt is mostly on the bias. I don't know if that will be a factor in determining a quilting design. I plan to pin baste it like crazy.

So...given the above considerations, if you have any ideas on quilting, I'd love to have you share them. In the meantime, I've made a crude little practice top so I can try out some things. I just sewed some of the leftover strips together. No planning, measuring, pinning, or pressing (!). I just wanted to get it done while I was cleaning up my mess.



Next week there is a huge sidewalk sale at a quilt shop nearby. I'm hoping to find something less angular for the back--maybe floral or paisley or something. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll find enough yardage--although a few different fabrics would be okay, too, I guess. 

I know the basting and quilting will take some time, so between sessions, I have something else to work on. Remember these fabrics? I showed them ages ago. (I would love to steal that second one for the back of the Big Quilt)


I'm going to be making an extension on three sides of a commercial bedspread for my niece to make it a more comfortable size for her king size bed. She sent me the bedspread this week:



I think I'll make vertical stripes. There's one copper colored fabric (not pictured) that's sheer and gauzy (not double gauze, though). If anyone has any tips for backing that material to stabilize it, I'd appreciate it if you'd share. (Would it work to just double it? The shiny copper fabric is polyester curtain material, which will also be unusual for me to sew. It was important to my niece to use it because it goes with metallic accents in her room. I think when it comes to quilting, I'm going to use a combination of machine quilting on the cottons and big stitch hand quilting on the polyester and gauzy fabric. Stay tuned.

I'm linking up today with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday, and TGIFF because, well, you know...it's finished!! (except for the quilting). Buttons for these wonderful linky parties are on the side. 

Don't forget to share your ideas about the quilting and working with the gauzy fabric. Thank you so much!! Now I'm waiting for my grandkiddies to arrive for a long weekend. I hope you have a great weekend, too. 

13 comments:

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Beautiful quilt! So from the grass picture I see four distinct triangular areas. If that is for real( my eyes play tricks sometimes) could you do straight lines but do them in a triangle in each of the four quadrants?

Ann said...

Amazing! (Am I starting to repeat myself?) :)

Whitney T said...

It's amazing!!! Congrats on getting it all together. I think since the overall design is so stunning, I would leave that as the focus and just keep the quilting to simple straight lines across, but that it just me. I love the idea of emphasizing the quadrants with straight lines.

Kat said...

Awesome awesome quilt and design. Wow it is huge isn't it!? I love the design and the colors you've chosen. I'm sure whatever quilting you decide on will be good. My impulse is always to use curvy quilting on really angular quilts. Kat @ katandcatquilts.blogspot.com

Camilla said...

Wow! That looks so fantastic!! I like the idea of straight lines in line with the piecing. Maybe three ish lines per strip. You could stabilise by stitching in the ditch first Starting each line from the opposite direction then the bias shouldn't be too much of an issue

Anonymous said...

Beautiful quilt! I would probably quilt it to emphasize the strong diagonal lines in the quilt. I like the idea of variations in the quilting in some patches, and since you have used solids, your quilting will show up very well. I am trying to do something similar on my current quilt, though I haven't gotten to the FMQ part. A walking foot would make straight lines quite easy, though turning a quilt of that size is quite troublesome. Good luck!

Daytona Damsel said...

Wow what a striking quilt.

Lara B. said...

You made an AMAZING flimsy Janeen and I am so excited to see it completed! It's just gorgeous! I know just what you mean about it being fragile at this stage. It is always a relief to me to get a quilt binding on, because then i feel like the quilt is safe.

Using a walking foot is a very good idea for quilting this quilt. It will save a lot of distortion along those bias grains. I had one idea - what if you chose the shape of a gem and then quilted it in concentric patterns? It would go with the deep gem like sparkle of your design.

Have fun at the sidewalk sale! Oh and the fabrics you chose to make vertical stripes to enlarge your niece's bedspread are going to look wonderful with it!

M-R Charbonneau said...

That is stunning! I would quilt it to accentuate the diagonal lines. It's going to be fabulous!

Bernie Kringel said...

This is just exceptional Janine. Deciding how to quilt this is so important - it is just such an amazing project. I think straight line in some sort of geometric pattern would be cool. I don't think it calls for FMQ. It is so modern. Cannot wait to see what you do with this.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I didn't realize it was going to be so big! Fantastic job! I couldn't even imagine tackling this with a domestic machine....so I'm very impressed!

Who-lee-uh said...

Love the bold pattern! To be honest, I hate quilting bias quilts on my home machine! I always end up with distortion on the edges :( But the ideas above all sound really good

Kaja said...

Just catching up on my blog reading and am so excited that you have finished this - you must be really pleased; it is so striking. I'm not much help on machine quilting but the lines in this are so strong I think I would definitely go with straight lines in some shape or form. Fabulous!