Grace Once Again

For the month of June, we have a 'free' challenge, meaning we can make whatever we want. I knew I'd work with the Faded Blue Jeans line by Kathy Engle, and make a quilt. I wasn't sure what, exactly. You can read the background about the quilt and see the flimsy in this post, so I won't repeat myself.

I got the quilt quilted on the weekend and bound on Monday. I took it to Seacliff Beach after supper for some evening light on it against Lake Erie.

I love how it turned out.

Summer Breeze - A Finish!

The seagulls took off, but one circled back!

My Erie Shores Quilt Guild meeting was tonight, so I sewed on the binding this morning and then spent 3 hours this afternoon hand-sewing it down to the back.  Threw it in the wash on delicate, into the dryer for 20 minutes and with no minutes to spare before the meeting, found 10 anyhow to run down to the beach to snap a few fast pictures for my blog!!

The wind was blowing a gale all day, and it flipped the corner up without my help!

Draped it over the beach picnic table for interest.

Here you can see the yummy texture.  I did a chain of wave-like swirls in the white bars between each block, with smaller clusters of swirls on either side of the bar between blocks.  In my last post, I had wondered about changing the thread from the variegated grey to a pure white. . . I decided to go with a Sulky rayon in pure white, and I'm really happy I did, although the Aurifil did sink into the quilt.  I cannot say enough about my darling Avanté, my Avril, just taking whatever thread I throw at her, and rarely asking for changes to her tension.

I knew I would do this design because of the swirls in the one fabric!  I used Angela Walters' Dot to Dot method in one of the blocks.  You can see the half diamond motif in the turquoise block above.  I made myself use the blue ruler I got (the same one Angela uses), and I really noticed improvement over the course of the quilt!

OUCH

However, while attempting to stitch in the ditch by the edges of the quilt where I get a lot more bounce in the quilt, and while using my left hand to guide the machine, holding the ruler with my right,  (opposite to what I usually do), the hopping foot hopped over the edge of the ruler, and tried to quilt through this thick plastic ruler, NOOOO. . . oh I said a word that would make the air very blue, as a chunk of my ruler flew who knew where, the needle broke, and a HOLE was ripped into my quilt, because my left hand wasn't programmed like my right to shut the damn machine off!!  I don't stitch in regulated mode, where the needle moves when your hand moves; Angela recommends that you don't, so you get the proper feel of the machine and you will regulate the stitches yourself.

The hole was created by the blunted needle punching through the fabric for several stitches until I stopped the machine.  I did find the half moon chunk of blue plastic and Krazy Glued it back on.  I really liked using the ruler, especially for the half diamonds, but also for the straight line down the centre of the lemon yellow fabric you see above.  I FMQ-ed the flowing lines on the sides of the block however.  Not bad, I'd say!  As for the torn fabric, I've left it as is, and it wasn't noticeable after washing.  It's not a show quilt thank goodness!

The label.  I top-stitched it onto the backing and then quilted through it.  You get the idea of how much quilting there is on the quilt.  The backing is Festive Forest which I bought from Fat Quarter Shop in their sale section, such a good deal!

Full view of the quilt.  Such a light and airy feel to it; I just love it.  I bound it with the Cobblestones in grey.  I really like the way the Aurifil stitched by hand; I found it didn't twist and twirl as much as Gutermann does. As for fuzz build-up, I found it the same as the Gutermann.

Fantastic wave action on the lake today!

Quilt Details
Size: 58 X 63"
Fabric:  100% cotton:  Textures line by Angela Walters + two pieces from her Legacy line and Kona cotton in Snow; backing is Camelot Fabrics "Festive Forest"
Pattern:  Off Track by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew
Quilted with Aurifil variegated grey 4060 and Sulky rayon pure white 1001


I am linking up with Karen's Sew Darn Crafty linky party of Sew Many Ways as well as Lee's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!