The Sky is Blue.....and so is the quilting!

Darn it! I always get the order of the photos backwards! So, from the bottom to the top, this is what is happening: (Please start at the bottom of this post and work up to the top)

5. Blocking the quilt
Laid out on the floor of the shed (to become studio) here is me smoothing the wet quilt to flatten it. This is the first time I have ever blocked a quilt and I was amazed at how much some areas of the quilt wanted to shrink in relation to other areas. The tightly quilted areas really pulled in, while the less heavily quilted areas didn't. The result, once smoothed out was a wavy line on the border. For this art quilt, I did not pin the sides out, just letting it take its own shape. I will trim it straight once it is dry, in a couple of days. Then I covered it with a clean sheet (there is a clean one underneath as well) to let it dry. I know this quilt will hang really well now and I am really glad I had the courage to do it!

4. Soaking the quilt prior to "blocking"

After three days of solid quilting, the quilt comes of the machine, and has a preliminary trim to get rid of unwanted fabric from the backing. Then I folded it and filled the laundry tub with cold water. It was amazing how much water it soaked up! A light spin in the machine, and then.....

3. Textural variation in the quilting

This can be a real challenge, I found. I was getting very settled with quilting the long flowing lines of the waves and sand and sky, so up close it was fun to work with lots of little circles to represent the sand at the feet of the children.

2. Using a spy glass to "see" the quilt from a distance

These are great! I raced out yesterday morning to buy one - I have been wanting one for ages. These are the things you have inserted into your front door to see who is on the other side. It gives you a sort of fish-eye view and when you look at your quilt it is as if you are a long, long way away. This is very reassuring for long arm quilters, who tend to look at everything as if it is under a magnifying glass. This quilt is not a traditional one, and it is meant to be seen from far away, and then closer, like a painting.

1. Quilting the Quilt

I used one of those "hospital" type trays on wheels so I could look at my visual diary while I was quilting the quilt. After a while I didn't really need it, but it helped me sort out in my mind the broad areas needing quilting. I placed a sheet of acetate over a photo of the quilt thus far, and drew some general quilting lines on it with a permanent marker. This was good to do, as once the quilt is on the machine it is easy to get get lost as so much of it remains unseen whilst working on a small area. The other page has a print from the original photo, for more detail.

The Sky is Blue, the Sea is Blue

Progress! The last few days have been spent pinning large areas of colour to form the background. I had no idea how I was going to do this, but it it going fine. Very rough cutting and checking with the chalk marking underneath allow me to place the pieces, overlapping as I go.

The image above shows a close up of the little girl. Some of the hair had to be covered up as the bits are too fine to trim around. What I will do is stitch from the back as I will be able to see the stitching lines, and then trim the excess baclground away. I should be able to just temporarily tack the quilt onto the quilt machine for this.

This is the latest image. You can see that there is now some layering in the sky, and distant bluff on the horizon is in place. I still have to work on the right hand side of the sky. Still very rough

Normally quite camera shy, I asked Geoff to take a photo of me as I pin some fabric on. This is just to show the scale of the quilt. Because it is so big, the detail is not really fine close up. I like that effect and hope to make more big projects this way.
My next task will be to finish the sky, then take it down and start to smooth over all the little wrinkles and rough cutting. I will have to hand baste these pieces down before returning the quilt to the quilting machine. Once it is there, the fun really starts!

The Sky is blue, the Sea is Blue

Today I started auditioning fabrics for the background. Most of the colours are too dark, as I want a bleached beach look, so I am waiting for fabrics I have placed on order. However, I just wated to try out how it might start to look with more colour in the background. I don't think it will be a problem to apply large pieces of fabric and (thank goodness) the more fiddly and tedious parts are now done. I just have a little bit of detail to attend to around the girl's arm and some shadow details. I am pretty happy with how it is shaping up now!

I love to keep a quilt journal as I make a quilt. Here are a couple of pages from my journal for "The Sky is Blue, the Sea is Blue".

I like to use the A3 Visual Diaries the best. It is great to go over it and see how ideas developed. It's also an excellent place to keep information I need to keep. On one page I have pasted details of quilt show deadlines to remind me to get a move on!

After I washed out the Verona (soluble clear film) some areas were not stitched down well enough. I will simply baste these and attend to them once I start the more detailed, intense quilting on the final piece.

I love the look of the piece after washing out. I am especially pleased with the overall softness of the quilt. I didn't want the stiff result that comes when using fusible webbing. It is OK on stained glass, but not for this quilt. More soon...............