Thursday, January 16, 2020

Santorini

When I first saw Cheryl Brickey's pattern Use Your Illusion, two thoughts ran through my mind: wow that is so striking, and wow that looks like a lot of fun to make.

And when I stared at the pattern, I started to see a Greek spiral effect, and then my mind went straight to Santorini. I thought about the lovely blue dome in pretty much all the photos of Santorini, and I found a shade of Kona cotton that matched it.

Piecing of this quilt definitely took awhile since paper piecing always does, but it was as fun as I expected. It was truly exciting to see each perfect block come out one by one. But how do I quilt it? The pattern is so striking and I wanted the quilting to enhance it.

I completed each "incomplete" block with lines, and then proceeded to densely fill in every other space so that all the foreground and the spirals remain unquilted and will pop to the front.

To keep monotony down, I filled the background of the quilt with several different designs, flower, back-and-forth lines, swirls, and wavy lines. Simple in concept, but boy did this quilt take forever and forever to quilt! It wasn't all that hard, but my hands kept getting numb due to all that small intricate work, and I had to take a lot of mental and physical breaks. Sometimes the breaks lasted weeks.

But at the end, it was all worth it when it was done. I really like how the end result has such a richness and elegance to it. Even though I took much longer on this quilt than I intended to, I'm so happy with it and it's a great one to start the year with!

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Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Cooking Up Quilts, Powered by Quilting, and Meadow Mist Designs.

16 comments:

  1. Absolutely gorgeous! I love the consistent pattern of the quilting fillers that you used.

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  2. The quilting give so much life to the design. The colors are striking and perfect for the inspiration. Beautifully done!

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  3. What a beauty. And I looove seeing your creative quilting ideas!

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  4. Elegant, indeed! So simple, and yet so striking. Beautiful finish!

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  5. It's always fun to see what you've been creating, Liz, and that beautiful quilting adds just the perfect touch!

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  6. I love the way you've placed the blocks! My engineering husband, on the other? This would drive him crazy! Hmmm....maybe I should make one, lol.
    The entire quilt is gorgeous.

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  7. Wow!!! This is stunning. You really created a masterpiece - enjoy it!

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  8. Oh my! This is just so amazing! Your quilting has elevated the design so much. I love , love, love it!

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  9. Very intriguing. At first I thought it was a log cabin quilt but no, it is much simpler than that and yet so striking. Awesome job on the quilting too. Congratulations! ;^)

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  10. The quilt is wonderful. I love the wonderful movement the quilting creates. The lines seem to vibrate.

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  11. Very intricate quilt design and perfect color choices. The quilting makes it more special.

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  12. Your quilting is SEW phenomenal. When I grow up, I want to quilt like you!!! Sigh...

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  13. I love everything about this. I laughed at the week long breaks...it does happen. Kudos to you for putting up with all the tedium to get to this fabulous result.

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  14. Just beautiful! You can savor every minute using it on your couch.

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  15. This is a stunning quilt! Your quilting takes it to a whole different level.

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