New York Beauty – Done!

It’s done! It’s finished! It is heavy!  All that cotton is weighing things down. I am still planning a king size quilt for my bed and am seriously considering polyester batting.

Yes, I am very pleased with how this came out, I love the colors, love the grey background. And more than anything, I love how much my FMQ quilting has really improved. I used up many of my grey prints for the back, the chevron and the green never even make an appearance in the front.  I also put on a hanging sleeve. Who knows, I might decide to submit this to a show at some point.

I even pieced the sleeve, simply because I was using the trimmings after I finished the quilting.  Here is how I put on a sleeve, when I do the first round of sewing on the binding – I make sure to capture the top of the sleeve, then the top gets sew again when I hand sew the binding to the back. At the same time, I hand sew the bottom of the sleeve.  Since I am doing a lot of small hand stitches at the time it is a large job, but when it is done, it is done!  So putting on a sleeve doesn’t feel like an extra chore.

The lathe I’m using for hanging isn’t very strong, but look how the weight of the quilt is dragging it down.I am thrilled with the quilting!  With a light grey aurifil thread quilted as stitch in the ditch around the crowns and a darker grey in the FMQ background.  My feathers are finally looking like real feathers and not fat fingers. All I can say is practice, practice, practice.  The background filler just makes them pop more.I really like how the vines round the corner.  I admit to loving feathers, I’m sure there will be many more. They do show up well on a solid background.This quilt deserves to be displayed, not folded up on a couch, what better place than the railing in the living room.I know, it clashes with the couch, but as far as I’m concered, the quilt wins. When I reupholster the couch one of these days, it will be solid, the vibrant colors of my quilts will shine better that way.I ventured out to get some vanity shots at Lake Balboa, we do have water in LA, even if it is reclaimed in a manmade lake. I had to be very careful not to let the quilt drag on the ground. Dirt and a lot of ducks and geese leaving their poop everywhere.Picnic tables make nice displays. Notice one duck in the background, there are tons others all around, I managed to avoid them.I did find this tree, that has grown level with the ground, very nice prop!

I really loved making this quilt, I still need to name it and embroider a label. I already sewed in the little printed label with my name, but the quilt needs a name. I have a few more projects that I feel I must get to soon, a label will be made.

I am interested in some modern interpertations of classic designs, Double wedding ring and Hawaiian appliqué are on the list. Connecting old and new is very satisfying.