"Which Path Will You Take" is finished!

So you have seen the original beginning from my QBL adventure in July 2012, but it is finally finished.  And as I talked about the gallery exhibit opening this week, I showed additional pictures.  So now I thought I would show you the finished product.

Hope you enjoy...

There were six different green fabrics in the center of this piece and each different green had it's own fill pattern.

 I wanted to make sure I had some type of continuity, so in each of the swirly-ques in the green fabrics, I filled the centers with little bubbles..  which made me really HAPPY!
As with alot of my recent pieces I have added trapunto to give just a little bit more of interest..

The border fabric, was a different green fabric and it had its own design.  I also didn't want a straight border, so I added the curves from the center piece, since the whole spirit of the piece is that our lives usually don't take a straight path as we travel on our journey.   So you will see curvy quilting in the border and a curved edge to the piece.


The inner border plays off of the center design, with both straight and curly quilting, again to lend focus to the spirit of the piece.  Remember, the choice is always yours in life.  No one says you have to take the straight path to your dreams.

Another one of the things I like in this piece is the double piping before the binding.  I just love the added touch of detail!

 So here is the finished quilt....  no top or bottom border, because our journey should never have a defined start and stop....

This piece is quilted totally with Superior Magnifico: Congo Lime and White; and Superior BottomLine Majenta (yes, I used BottomLine in the top for the pink, because it was a perfect match).

Hope you enjoyed!  It took awhile to get it finished, but I am glad I did. 

A special thanks to Philippa Naylor who gave me the courage to start this technique in QBL 2012 :-)...

Update on Visions of Paisley

I can finally say I am on the home stretch!  Visions of Paisley is all quilted and I have added a double piping.  This was my first time doing a double piping, so I had to do my research first.  I took out my Ricky Tims Grand Finale DVD, to review his method, then of course I went to Susan Cleaveland's YouTube page, because I use her Piping Hot Tool, so I wanted to see if she had any hints and techniques I could learn from.  I ended up watching a few other videos, before I jumped in.

I used my Bernina #32 Pintucking foot, because the grooves were a perfect size for my piping to slide through and it made it easy to keep the stitching tight.  I did use Ricky's technique of creating the piping with water soluble thread, so that if some of the stitching peaked out, I could just spritz it with some water.  Luckily for me, I don't see any yet :-).   I am pleased with the way it turned out.  Even with the binding sewn on the front, it is still nice and tight.

As always my pics taken in the studio are with my Blackberry phone, so the shot is a little fuzzy, but I hope you can see how tight the piping is.  I was worried, as I used the same Dupioni silk as the applique in the center of the quilt and you know Dupioni has those nubs on it, so I wasn't sure it it would behave.  But I think it did :-)

Once I got the binding on, (no it isn't stitched down in the back yet), I was anxious to get some of the swarovski cyrstals on.  I lost track of time, it was addictive, I just wanted to see the next shape outlined and the next.  In this picture I have about 600 crystals down and I still have quite a bit to go.

The problem???  If you look at the swirl of the large paisley shape.  it is a deep purple (although you probably can't tell that from this picture..  Blackberry...ugh), but I accidentally used the Cobalt Blue crystals vs the Purple Violet ones, so that means the next step is heating them each back up and taking all 50+ crystals off one at a time.  Sort of like un-sewing....  takes about 3x the time it took to get it on.  Oh well, it is what it is.

I am traveling on business now, so it will have to wait until I return, from Costa Rica.  Oh yeah, I know why they call it a rain forest!!

Until next time :-),
Renee