Sheer medallion finished!

 

What else do you do when it’s 116 degrees? Quilt of course! Bayley still needs her walks, but they are shorter and altered to find shade and paw-friendly places. I was able to finish my sheer piece that I wrote about last week, which is currently nameless:

This is a prototype, a lark, a fun romp. I designed it in about 20 minutes, with no planning sketches, just reacting to what I put down. I did have some design errors and I’m fine with that. You might notice the odd gap between the edge of the corner design and the actual corner. My main point was to play with several concepts:

–   Use a low volume print for my background instead of the expected solid color. I DO like that!
–   Use sheers as my color, and layer them to create interesting effects. I like that too!
–   Work on my design skills. Yeah, well, still working that one.
–   Use netting to hold down the layers of sheer. The result is a mixed bag. I am happy that it did not change the color, and, it held the sheers down well. Even though I stitched each line twice, the netting is trying to come up in places.

I have a couple of solutions. One is to just cut them out. This would be quick and easy, not much of a task at all. Among the other alternatives is to either add another layer of netting, or, triple stitch the edges. I do not want to do either of these things for aesthetic reasons. I am leaving the netting in on this piece. Another alternative is to not use them at all, and just be mindful as I quilt the sheers. I have done this in the past. I do not want to layer another sheer on top, it would change the color.

So a couple of interesting highlights along the way. I did use blue wash out to mark, and I needed to get that out. Remember, it’s been 116:

We long ago converted our pool to salt water, so it’s a great place to wash out my quilts. Note the black and white hairy assistant.

We put down artificial doggie turf a while ago for our Basset Boy. This is not regular artificial grass, but a special product that does not hold the heat. When you put your foot on it, the heat of the grass goes away in 2 seconds and you are left with the surrounding ambient heat. The turf is set on top of 18″ of some special mineral product that is anti everything. It will not hold a smell and water will not puddle up on the turf. It’s amazing.

BUT, it is also a great place to dry anything:

Even if I had dripping dye, it would not stay on the turf. The stiff little grassy thingys hold the drying object up off the surface so that you get decent drying, even on the turf side of the quilt. I just spray the grass down before I plop down my quilt, and I’ve got this great drying surface.

It was a mere 107 today. Funny story: I put the soaking wet, fresh-from-the-pool quilt on the turf. I did squish a bit of the water out. I went inside, cleaned and oiled my machine and tidied up a bit. I thought, I’ll bet that quilt is dry already. And sure enough, it was damp dry.

I decided to bind rather than face. So I did a fabric pull:

The colors are off in the photo. All of the fabrics I pulled worked well. I pulled 3 silks and one special hand dyed piece. Ya know, life is too short to hoard our gorgeous fabrics. For just a second, I thought it seemed silly to bind with expensive fabrics. Hah! What am I gonna do, hold them? Until when? For what project? I’m late 60’s, time to use this stuff up! I LOVE that striped silk, and I remember buying it in San Francisco. It was expensive! And it is the perfect binding for this piece, adds a bit of color, interest and elegance. We have to USE these fabrics!

A few random detail shots:

Note the odd gap at the corner – design error:

Oh I do love feathers! I can teach you how to feather at the Houston show, class # 720, Saturday, 9AM – 5PM. We’ll be working on beautiful BERNINA’s!

Here is the arsenal of design and quilting tools I used, starting from the lower right, moving clockwise:

Grippy, gotta have some. Spray on the back and you instantly have a perfectly grippy surface. I do not like the little pads that lift the ruler up off the surface. Then in order: Linda Hrcka ruler. Bethanne Nemesh Lily Lines ruler, Yu Tien Wu ruler (Taiwan, from a friend), architectural circle maker, my beloved Line Tamer for free motion quilting straight lines and, an Amanda Murphy ruler.

I need to put up a video on the Line Tamer. I discovered this ruler years ago and will not free motion quilt a straight line with any other ruler. I will let you know when I get that up on You Tube.

So there ya go, a finish! There’s nothing like a few waaaay over 100 degree days to inspire me to git er done!

I’ll share at:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday