Last finish of 2016

I finished this quilt on Dec. 31, 2016, I still have to make a label, but I don’t consider that a reason not to call this finished.I posted this on Instagram as well, I’m getting a lot of likes. I think this is appealing to many people, it’s not a bold brash assault on the eyes with bright colors. It’s not overwhelmingly busy with no place for the eyes to rest. It has very masculine in feel. It is different from so many quilts out there right now. Needless to say I LOVE it. I am grateful that my daughter in law does as well, since I made this with my son Elk in mind, so I’m thrilled it is going to live with them.

And now for the rest of the journey as to how we got here.Using my design wall I tried to figure out a layout. This was one atempt, there is no reason why this wasn’t the winner, it just wasn’t.My sewing room is downstairs, the design wall in the spare bedroom upstairs, so I was getting a lot of exercise running up and down the stairs.  If it looks like the quilt isn’t perfectly flat, that is because it isn’t. I started playing fabric chicken. I was very concerned that I was running out of fabric and wouldn’t have enough to finish the background. The thought of running back down to Torrance, and maybe not finding any more of the background really scared me. So when I made a mistake is the width of a background strip, I left it and scrunched in the pieces.At least I had cut my borders first. This is all that was left over, I won the chicken game, barely. When I measured the quilt it certainly wasn’t an accurate rectangle. That is OK, I make my quilts to be used, not for shows. I also knew that good quilting will hide many sins.I can’t help myself, these days feathers are a go to of mine when it comes to quilting.Since my son goes by Elk (short for Elkana, even in Israel where we named him, this is an unusual name. Although and important charcter in the Bible, the father of Samual the prophet). As soon as I saw this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, I knew I had to make a quilt for him. I had to go through Craftsy to buy the class, the individual pattern will only be available for sale in the spring. I have no regrets about buying the class, I gained some new tips for how to piece Elizabeth’s patterns.This picture is mid quilting. The animals have a simple in the ditch and quarter inch line on the larger images. The background is a combination of feather surrounded by free motion leaves.

Remember this owl? Way too big for the front, I was considering using him in a baby quilt, instead, he found his way onto the back.I bought some essex linen for the back. Not enough, but as you know I like to piece my backs. Although I hadn’t prewashed the fabrics on the front, I needed to prewash the linen because it does shrink. So I threw the top in and washed it as well, so when I wash the whole quilt – there won’t be surprise shrinkage.

Also, to the naked eye, the quilt looks like a rectangle, all that heavy quilting hides all the sins that were present before quilting.

The puckers have disapeared, which is why quilting is so amazing. It not only holds the three layers together, it really is a wonderful finishing touch. On th back you can see the image of the little owl standing out from the busy background.

I have sewn on my name, am still working on the actual label, which will be embroidered. I need to show this off to my guilds. I may give it to my son then borrow it back, since my schedule right now has me missing the first guild meetings of the year.One more image of the quilting, because I am so proud of it, it’s all free hand. I’m pleased with the leaf filler. Since it’s woodland creatures it just felt right to have a forest like feel in the background.

Leah

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