Crann bethadh (Photo finish)

I finally finished the quilting this weekend.  I only had to complete the inner border area and was being lazy about it.

Here is the frontal view.

A closeup of the outer border quilting.  I quilted the border from the back of the quilt so the direction of the swirly feathers were going the same as the braid.  This prevented me from having to put the bulk of the quilt under the throat of my Viking.

Here is the trunk detail.  Hopefully you can see it.  I did a barky, flamey sort of pattern here.  This was the best quilting I have done yet.  I am really pleased at how this came out.

The back of the quilt.  Not my favorite quilt back.  I think the batiks did not make for a good type of material for a scrappy back.  I think scrappy quilt backs work better with some fabrics being patterned.  I used all of my batiks though and they are out of my stash which makes me happy!

The swirly feathery border can be seen well from the back.

Time for a bath!!

Quilting the Tree of Life

I have put aside the prairie point blocks (all cut out and ready to go) and started quilting the Tree of Life quilt!  The center is complete, and I had been really torn about what to do with the outer border.  I love the braided border and wanted something to fit the theme of the quilt while not overpowering the lovely outer border.

A while back I saw that Quilty Pleasures had a series called Stop, Drop, and Roll Quilt-a-long.  She had a few awesome yet simple quilting designs to practice, and I really loved the swirly feathery design she posted.  The way I quilt, if I put the outer edge under the needle, the design would have been counterclockwise.  The braided border goes clockwise on the quilt.  I didn't want that.  I emailed Debby and she graciously replied.  She suggested I quilt the border from the back of the quilt!  Light bulb!  By quilting the border upside down, the direction of the swirly feathers would be in the same direction as the braid.

Here I go!  I used my walking foot to quilt around the outer edge of the quilt so I knew where my boundaries were.  The design is a bit tedious so I am doing one bobbin a night.  By the time I can start quilting, it is late and my eyes are already buggy from being tired.  Still, it should be done rather quickly.  I love that you don't have to be careful about tracing your own lines.  It really has some whimsy to it!

I have one side complete now, and after that I have a little more to do with my walking foot, and then the quilting is done!  I can't wait to share pictures!

P.S.  The specific tutorial I used can be found here.

30 Posts!

Time (and posts) fly when you are busy creating!

I finished the braided borders on the Tree of Life Quilt.  I love it!  I have also started on the back of the quilt and ran out of fabric.  Looks like I can take part in the nice sale my LQS is having now.  I need about two yards for the back and binding.  I still need to do the embroidery on the quilt top.  I want to applique a caterpillar on it too.  Hopefully I can have all of these things done (except for the embroidery) by Friday.  After that, I will off grid and working solely on my GFG.

Later today I will be learning how to crochet!  Attic 24 has this awesome tutorial up on a hexagon blanket.  I look forward to making it!

Quilt #4

I usually only have a max of two quilts going at once.  I have one in the piecing stage and one in the quilting stage.  After that, things get complicated.  I do not like UFOs and am fortunate to say I only ever left one project get like that.  I made my son a snake quilt and left it sit for about a year before quilting it.  Here it is.  This is the second quilt I made.

Anyway.  This time around, I let myself get up to four projects at once.  You have seen the other three and they are nearing completion or have already been finished (Crumb Patch, the Evelyn Sloppy string quilt, the GFG, and the one I am about to share with you).

I wanted to make a gift for my sister.  My thoughts were twofold.  Fall colors and tree of life.  She had fallen in love with an Amish quilt but could not remember the pattern.  WE looked at hundreds of Amish quilts but none rung a bell in her memory.  After lots of thought, I decided to not even try to make an Amish style tree of life type of quilt.  I didn't want it not to meet what picture she had in her mind, get what I mean?  So, I went totally different.  I saw this artist named Natasha Wescoat.  She makes beautiful paintings of trees of life.  they are whimsical, colorful, and downright spectacular.  I wanted to make a quilt inspired by her beautiful paints.  This is what I came up with.

And this is the way it sat for about two months while I finished other projects.  At 43 x 66 the measurements were not wide enough in my opinion.  I wanted a lap quilt and after borders it would have ended up too long and too skinny.  My LQS ran out of the fabric and I could not find it online.  Finally, it hit me.  I decided to do a triple border of brown, gold, and brown, then finish it off with a fourth braided border.  The final braided border would be fall colors to pull out the bright batiks used in the center.  It would end up twin sized.  I have worked the last few days and have gotten this far.

I have just started working on cutting pieces for the braided border.  More to come!

On a side note, I will mention that I put the string quilt away for a bit.  The top and back done, but I have no batting.  I will be picking some up after vacation in Mid July and hope to have it done not too long after that!