A Quilt Finish

I said I would have some quilting stories when I started the blog, and you might've thought I forgot all about it.  But that didn't happen!  It just took awhile for our shipment (with sewing machines) to arrive, and once it did I had to get started right away on a bed-size quilt, so it took some time to finish.  Plus I wanted to wait until she received it!

I love seeing the fabric all cut and ready to be sewn!

My niece graduated high school this summer, and I offered to make her a quilt to celebrate her achievement.  She said she wanted one, so I gave her a bunch of patterns to pick from and she chose Horizon Charm by Cynthia Muir (Modern Quilts Winter 2015).  Then we went off to Home Depot to look at paint samples.  That seems to be the best way to determine the colors to use.  Her interpretation of aqua may be different from mine, so this way we're on the same page about the colors she likes.  Before we moved to Japan I was able to go through my stash and pull out the colors she had picked. (I have a decent-size stash, though I know people with more!)  The only thing I had to purchase was the backing - I even had the 3 1/2 yards of white fabric that I needed!  Everything got packed up, and I was happy when it arrived in Tokyo in January so I could get started on her quilt.

Why won't the salmon work??

Working with the colors she picked, I cut up the fabrics and was all set to start arranging them on my design wall.  I thought I'd focus on the blue and green colors, and add some salmon and yellow as accents.  But it wasn't working.  I decided I had to pull all of the yellow and maybe include just a touch of pale salmon to get some contrast.  I still wasn't happy, so I pulled out the salmon and used just the blue and green. 

Hmmm.....

I left it up for a day,  thinking I'd like it, but I still felt it was muddy.  So I pulled out my color wheel and looked over the colors.  I actually had seven different "colors" currently on the quilt, so I pulled the most blue and most green ones off the wall so I was down to five (green, blue-green, aqua-green, aqua blue, turquoise).  Suddenly it looked much better!  And it was a  lot easier to place the fabrics beside each other - they all seemed to work well together.  So I ended up with an analogous color scheme.

Next I just had to focus on value - I wanted some contrast between each rectangle so they would look distinct and not run together. I also wanted to make sure I didn't have large patches of dark and/or light clustered in one spot.  My favorite tool is the black & white feature on my camera phone.  It's the easiest way to determine value! 

Black and white - see the contrast?

In color - the value contrast can be harder to see.

The blue painter's tape helps when it extends past the flannel design wall.

Figuring out the colors and placement was the longest part of the process!  Once that was finished, sewing went quickly (well, except for the one mistake where I had to rip out several hours worth of work...).  It's just rectangles, so no tricky piecing.  I had to put the quilt together in quarters, which made it a little easier since my design wall couldn't fit the entire quilt.  I did have to try and put the parts up so I make sure I wasn't putting the same material next to each other when the quarters were sewn together.  I thought I did well when I checked for this, but as I was finishing the quilting I found the same two fabrics almost side by side.  Too late to fix at that point!

Comparing the four quarters before sewing the top together.  Last chance for changes!

Ugh!  How many more hours of this?!?

Once the top was finished, my least favorite portion of the quilting process - clipping threads off the back.  There are 1 1/4" strips of white between the rows, and I definitely didn't want any shadow threads showing through.  Luckily I can raise my ironing board up so it's not as difficult on my back.  Eight hours later (and many episodes of Alias - the show I binge-watched while working on the quilt) that part was completed.

The quilting was pretty simple - I stitched in the ditch for the entire quilt using a light green thread.  I made sure to add her name, so there's no question regarding who owns the quilt!  I learned this technique from a Craftsy class, Creative Quilting with Your Walking Foot.  

The light green thread appears more gray with the green background.  I wish I had changed thread colors for her name.

My tall husband is always my "quilt hanger," so I can get a full size photo. 

The finished quilt!

I also like to make a coordinating pillowcase (and it makes a nice "bag" for the quilt when giving as a gift).  Her favorite color is a blue-green, so I made sure to use that as the backing and in the pillowcase.

I love these colors, too - do you think she would mind if I make another for myself?

Luckily, at the end of her visit, my sister was able to take the finished quilt with her to mail from the US.  It was $85-150 to mail from Japan!  Eek!

And here's a picture of the graduate with her quilt! 

Congratulations, Alaina!