The Genesis of a Quilt

I am often asked two questions. One is if I sleep? The answer is "not much". The other questions is how does my brain work when it comes to my quilts. Honestly I don't even know myself. Sometimes when I have an idea, everything flows smoothly from inception to completion. That's a beautiful thing. It makes my heart sing. But sometimes it does not go so smoothly. That is the story with this quilt aka large tablerunner. It measures 25" x 54".

My goal was to use my stack of shot cottons that I purchased a few years ago. They are kind of like my iridescent silk dupioni, but not really. The warp and the weft are 2 different colors. They do have a handwoven look.

I had a bunch of fat quarters, so this size limited what I could create. I started with a tablerunner.

I used a Curvalicious based design. The colors made me think of Fall and also Craftsman colors, except for that bright yellow and maybe that pink. This just didn't do anything for me. So I took it apart and sewed it together in a different configuration.

I love the way the Curvalicious strips change color as they flow into one another. Now how to take advantage of that. And with the additions of circles, I wasn't happy.

At this point I printed a photo of the quilt without the circles. It would be easier to cut this and move sections, as opposed to ripping and stitching the actual quilt. It made me think about changing the orientation.

I liked it, but I thought another section was needed for balance. I had to scrounge for fabric, and I had just enough.

It became the first project that I quilted with my longarm. The variegated thread gave a nice look. I learned a lot about my new machine. I'm glad this entire thing was an experiment.

I added a bunch of folded triangles at each of the ends. I developed this technique for my book

Sew Embellished. They are very easy to add after the quilting is done.

And they add a nice finish. Maybe it needs a few beads for embellishment!

 

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