As Promised

Well, I said two days, right? Here are the finished quilts.

First up is Bunny Trails. It is 41"by 26".

It really needed binding to make the colours pop. The binding is made from leftover scraps....some from the Punk's denim quilt, some from the Floating Fruit trivet, and the piece along the bottom is from the Christmas tree skirt. I love how the quilting turned out.

And now for The Dark Side.

 The full name of this quilt is "The Dark Side: Modern Churn Dash." My skills weren't quite up to quilting exactly as I imagined, so I consulted with The Husband. As usual, his suggestions were spot on. We love the juxtaposition of flowers and curves on the Light side, and a more industrial design (almost like pipeworks) on The Dark Side.

 The size ended up being just shy of 40" square.

There is an inscription on the backing, next to a bloodstain, that documents a bug bite the Punk got on July 8, 2011. This puts the start date of The Dark Side in June of 2011. I believe that this has been my longest WIP.

 I drafted the bi-polar pattern myself, based on a traditional block. I had the idea that it would make a very cool twin size, maybe done in black & white and neons.

 I overcame my dread of learning how to miter corners on this quilt. I also do not like how the ditch stitching turned out and I may go back and fill in more areas with FMQ. I'll have to consult with the Husband (since his artistic suggestions have already made it onto this work).

I am most certainly going to use both of these FMQ patterns again. The pipeworks was so quick! Plus it used up about half the number of bobbins as the flowers.

I think the plan for now is a couple of days away from my machine - shopping, sorting books, moving furniture to give the Pixie her own room. After that? The Pixie picked out these fabrics and requested a new dress. She's got an awesome fashion sense.

Stubborn

I actually don't want to post today.

But since I have some pictures and have made a heck of a lot of progress on two WIPs.....

This is a practice sandwich I threw together before jumping onto an actual quilt. I've always thought that free motion feathers were the epitome of FMQ success....but now that I'm here and able to do them, I find that I don't even like them anymore. They're not my style. I prefer the "oak leaf" on the left.

I used the Oak Leaf all over Bunny Trails. Here is [part of] the back. Full reveal in a couple of days when it is bound.

I used the same sandwich to create a flowery pattern to use on the light half of The Dark Side quilt (if that made no sense, know that it's me, not you).

This pattern evolved as I was stitching it and I ended up with a FMQ pattern that will be used again and again.

 Here is what The Dark Side looked like when I unearthed it from a seven month hibernation. It's been partially quilted, awaiting the time when my FMQ skills caught up to my imagination.

Super wrinkly! But it's been behaving nicely while quilting.

What's that you say? Where does the Dark part come in? This is the back....Can you guess what pattern I [sort of] used? It is a redrawn, modern version of a very traditional pattern. You can see it if you look closely enough.

Full reveals in two days. Max.