Ignoring the little voice that I would eventually have to come up with the quilting design for the negative space, I immediately put it on my make list. I even knew exactly what fabric I wanted to use ... the rest of my Phases of the Moon fabrics from Spoonflower. I already made Phases of the Moon quilt but I still had some left over, so this was a perfect project for it. I had a good time piecing this, it was easy and virtually stress-free. But when I had a finished and basted quilt top, dread suddenly came over me. Oh no ... I realized. I actually have to quilt this now.
Don't get me wrong, I love to machine quilt, but I love to do the quilting, not figure out what to quilt. It's not that coming up with the design isn't fun, but it's very challenging at the same time and I backpedal a lot. In particular, I've never had this much negative space to play with, and the quilt isn't even symmetrical, so it's intimidating. I decided to play with a geometric design in the colored triangles, and use Angela Walter's tiles design in the background space, filling it with my big 3 (swirls / pebbles / paisleys). Once I decided what to quilt, then the fun really begins.
This is my first time using the tiles design, but I loved quilting it so much and it looks so great that it will be a staple from now on. This is also by far the densest I've ever quilted. I've always loved the dense look on Angela Walters's quilts, but I usually quilt at a larger scale just to get it done faster. This quilt was an experiment in dense quilting. It's definitely worth it, but I won't be doing it on every quilt because it is *so* time consuming. I wrote more about it in here.
I had so much fun making this quilt, and now I can throw the rest of the Phases of the Moon fabric in the scrap basket. I got two lovely quilts out of it, and I love them. In fact, I'm not sure which one I love more.
This post participated in the link-up at Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.
Just stunning! And the quiliting! Oh my! Quick questions, are you using a domestic machine, and if so, which one?
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm using a Handi Quilter Sweet 16 which is a sit down longarm machine (or a midarm). But this design is completely doable on the domestic because there isn't a lot of swing to it.
DeleteBoth of the Phases of the Moon quilts are wonderful in their own way!!
ReplyDeleteBoth quilts are just terrific. Your quilting here is amazing.
ReplyDeleteBravo! Beautiful quilt and quilting! I have hesitated to do very dense quilting but I love the texture. Great work!
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