Flow - A Friday Finish

How's that for lots of 'f' words?! I am so pleased to show you all my Wayward Transparency finish, and to welcome everyone, new readers and regular ones, to TGIFF, coming to you from Kingsville, Ontario, Canada, and from North Port, Florida, USA. (explanation to follow) This is my first time hosting this linky party, so I am pretty excited!

If you aren't familiar with TGIFF, it's a Friday finish linky party where you can showcase your finished quilt. Various bloggers host each week. Interested in hosting? Visit the info page here; it's super-easy to do.

Here is my finish, Yvonne's Wayward Transparency quilt along, which I've named 'Flow':

It is on my Q1 FAL list which is here, or ha, there on that link. You may be thinking, wait, what? Snow? I thought she was in Florida now. Well I am. No, there's no snow here. I took these photos before we left Ontario so that I didn't have to bring the quilt with me. I'm writing from Florida. 😉

All right, on with things... I wasn't sure about what layout to do; I didn't want borders, and the layouts with points in, or points out, or two in/two out, didn't sit right with me. When Tish showed me a layout she'd come up with, ding!ding!ding! the lightbulb went on and I knew this was it.

Late afternoon light to capture that texture! I haven't washed it yet, so it's bound to crinkle up more!

I love watching birds, have done for many years. When we lived in Alberta, we were on the migratory path for sandhill cranes. They fly WAY HIGH up; often so high it takes a while to find them, although you can hear their distinct calls. They will circle, waiting for an updraft, which, when they catch, flings them off south, much like a kid shoots out of a waterslide. Here in southern Ontario, I love watching turkey vultures float on the updrafts, lazily flapping their albatross-worthy wings every once in awhile, kind of like me floating in a pool, waving my arms in an 's' motion every once in a while.

So the circular movement of the 'geese' I see in this quilt felt right. Also feeling right was knowing I'd do a spiral quilting design, something I've not done over an entire quilt top, kind of like ripples made by tossing a pebble into some water.

I started in the centre of the quilt with a circle that spiralled outwards, doing the first several rounds FMQ-style so I didn't have to maneuver the bulk of the quilt. I marked 1/2" intervals so I had something to aim for. Here's a short video of that beginning:

After that, I switched to my walking foot, using the edge of it as my 1/2" guide.

Going around in circles did take a lot longer than I'd figured!

I love that the circle and triangles in the main background fabric can be found in the piecing and quilting.

What thread was I using? You might be able to tell it's a variegated one from the above photo. Bella picked it:

Sulky for the win!

It not only gives the quilt more movement, it also gives great texture.

TIP: I found about half way through the spiral quilting, that the quilt was starting to get a bit distorted from continually quilting in the same direction. I hadn't done something I always do on quilts, stitch in the ditch to stabilize. I'd figured with this dense of quilting, I wouldn't need to... Ditch-stitching also helps to prevent ripples on the back, a problem I read that a lot of quilters who pin-baste have. I don't pin baste anymore; it's glue basting all the way baby, never a problem since 1998 or '99 when I first had my quilting life changed by it. However, this quilt, though glue-basted, was getting distorted. So I stopped spiralling, and ditch-stitched along both central axes (plural of axis; I checked!), and then added more ditched lines along the largest long edge of two opposing triangles, and then went back to spiralling. It blends right in; you don't see these lines on the front or even on the back as the spiral takes front and centre. This is also why I am a press-to-one-side, usually the dark side, girl. The ditch-stitching will disappear in the 'valley' of that tiny ridge since you stitch on the low side of it. With seams pressed open, your ditch-stitching falls between the fabrics, not stabilizing the top at all, because your stitching is on top of the threads holding the two fabrics together. Hope that makes sense, and hope that helps to stabilize your quilt. I still plan to wash and block this quilt once we're back home.

Notice more of the circles motif in the deepest pink? That's all that's left of Masterpiece Mixers by Paintbrush Studio Fabrics. The medium pink is an older leftovers fabric, one that looks like a batik, but isn't. It has a hand like an AGF fabric. The lightest pink was a purchase, a Joel Dewberry on sale, bought a few months ago with no project in mind. I love blending newer and older fabrics.

When it came to the backing, I rifled through my pinks to see if I had anything that would work, and found the pink floral, purchased a winter or two ago in the sale section of Alma Sue's Quilt Shop in Sarasota, but of course there was not enough...

I love the sugary snow that ended up here and there on the quilt!

Then I spied a fabric I just love: that Nancy Crow deep fuchsia and orange tropical print, but hesitated to use it on the back of a quilt (it's another leftover, from the same quilt as the pink batik-like one). Then I thought uh hello? This leftover has sat for how long waiting to become the front of a quilt for me? So part of the back it became. Still not enough, so I added nearly all that was left of the medium pink. Perfect.

Binding fabric had to be the only fabric I had enough of, the medium pink. I sewed it to the front, and hand-stitched it down on the back, my favourite, albeit slowest, method.

I always sign my quilts somewhere, but I didn't want to detract from the spiral, so I FMQ-ed just my initials in the one corner.

Here's the label, a triangle.😉

A deeper meaning to this quilt
I started the quilt along in October. I'd chosen two colours, first, my favourite, blues, and second, because I'd only just got the Joel Dewberry, the pinks. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so pinks seemed fitting. Then, near the beginning of October, and throughout the entire month and beyond, actors were coming forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Harvey Weinstein. It got me thinking more about women.  Our power.  Our sisterhood. How we've been 'beneath' men forever. All through the making of this quilt during the quilt along, more and more women were coming forward with allegations against big names, men abusing their power, taking advantage of girls and women. Then, a BBC news presenter, Carrie Gracie, quit her job in China when she found out she wasn't being paid equally for equal work; she's since exposed the BBS for doing this repeatedly and secretively despite the Equality Act. E! host Catt Sadler quit when she discovered her male co-host was making double her salary... While finishing the quilt, the Larry Nassar trial was going on, and again, I was struck by the strength and resilience of women, many of his victims mere girls when he assaulted them, who found the courage to speak out and hopefully stop this behaviour, once and for all. I'll never part with this quilt; it holds all these events in its vibrant pink heart.

We were at our friends' house for supper last weekend, and I took the quilt with me to get a shot of it in the setting sun, Lake Erie in the background...the wind had other ideas, (it flew out horizontally in my quilt holder's hands!!) so I had to prop it against this tree and snap a quick shot. 

This quilt will go to yoga with me, already has done to one class, as my sit-upon quilt, its vibrant pinks reminding me of these courageous women, the flowing images reminding me of the birds I so love. Together, I think of how much lighter these women must feel, finally being listened to, believed, and finally seeing a monster gone from society forever.

Just look at that incredible sky and sunset! The peaks formed by the winds blowing snow where the lake had started to freeze, dune-like.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Wayward Transparency
Size: 48" square
Fabric:  'Wander' by Joel Dewberry, scraps and stash
Batting: Warm 'n Natural
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann cotton; quilted with Sulky variegated pink rayon, Aurifil 2600 in the bobbin

What have you finished this week? You may link up your blog post, Flickr or Instagram post using the link up below. Remember to visit a few blogs and spread some quilty love and encouragement. Please include a link to this blog post and/or the TGIFF button, so your followers can come here to view all the great finishes! You never know, you may have your quilter ADD kick in, and have to go DRop Everything And Make It, aka DREAMi! (Come back for that link up on Saturday; see sidebar for the button which will take you to the explanation post.)

I'll be linking up my finish:
Quilting JETgirl

and to some of the other Friday Finish parties in QBL:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts
Tish 'n Wonderland - because this was on my Quilting Confessions UFO List and now it's off that list!
Dizzy Quilts for the Q1 FAL

An InLinkz Link-up

Wayward Transparency Flimsy Finish

So pretty! I'm so happy with it! This is Yvonne's QAL currently running on Quilting JETgirl.

It took no time at all to put the four blocks together, and even though I knew they were large blocks, at 24.5" unfinished, when I pulled the quilt out from under the needle, completely pieced on little Billie, my Featherweight girlie, my eyes widened because it is a very decent size! 48.5" as it sits.  This is Tish's layout idea. I love the movement.  Isn't that light pink print, a Joel Dewberry, just so cool? Makes me think of the Nazca drawings in Peru.

As per usual, by a Great Lake, it was a windy day today, very windy!! Good thing this tree sheltered the quilt somewhat, but here are two out-takes for your viewing pleasure. No sun, so no stained glass effect shot, drat. Oh well.

So cross that one off the list, and on to the next!

I've already seen alerts on a couple blogs, but here is one for my peeps. I'll make it short and sweet:

Craftsy like my LQS, and several other quilt shops, is having a Twelve Days of Christmas event, with daily deals on classes and supplies. And of course there is going to be a huge finale, on December 11 and 12: the top 200 classes will be on for less than $20, and supplies will be on for up to 50% off. Might be worth putting that little item on your Christmas List right?! Or maybe you've been contemplating a new machine? Well...

Sewing Machines Plus has its biggest sale of the year going on, 10% off machines, and 0% financing. They carry fabric now, and they ship anywhere in the US on orders $49+. December 11 is a big day here too; if you want a machine or order by Christmas, this is the 'order by' date.

Linking up
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication

Wayward Transparency

I already knew it had been a while since I posted, but when I got a text from my daughter, Dayna, stating, "you don't blog anymore," I decided all right, sit your butt down at the laptop and write a post. There's no real reason for the 11 days' gap between posts; yes I've been sewing, bits and bats of various projects, nothing much (yet) to show. I've been reading too: some of it very heavy and oppressive, A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead, non-fiction about the women in the French Resistance during Nazi occupation in WWII, not as oppressive but not really uplifting, The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff, historical fiction, also about that same time period. Now I'm reading a fairly light fiction, Folly by Alan Titchmarsh. I'm part of two quilt alongs, the third, The Honeypot Bee, falling by the wayside but I do plan to pick and choose some of the blocks to at least have a wallhanging or small lap quilt.

I'm up to date with Step 2 of Wayward Transparency hosted by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. There are several layout possibilities with these four blocks.

Here are my four, taken this morning in the beginning rain. We are now under a heavy rainfall advisory over the next 24 hours, so this is as good as the photos will get! Sorry for them being a little skewed; it was, "Line 'em up, quick lift the phone in the air, check all four blocks are visible on the screen, lift a little higher, click! Rotate a couple blocks..." Repeat. No clue why the colour isn't consistent in all four photos, outside of the rain actually starting to fall by the last two arrangements!

The first is the original layout as in Yvonne's quilt. I like this one. The four corners are symmetrical. You barely notice that the centres of the four blocks... are not. I know I didn't until I started this second step! The eye sure can be fooled!

Oops cut a bit of the one corner off, but the rain was beginning, so good enough. Here I turned two opposing blocks outward. Ya, no. Not a fan.

I like this one too, because there is symmetry in the centre, and I love the radiating squares...until my eye finds the outer square isn't there, and that bugs me. I want four medium pink corners... So I am ix-naying this.

At this point, I had seen these three layouts on Tish's blog; I had only got half way through piecing the first two blocks. She actually has a fourth layout on her blog, two 'arrows' pointing in and two flowing through the quilt from bottom right to top left. Didn't feel that layout either. So #1 was going to be the one.

And then.

Yesterday she sent me another layout that she had played around with in EQ, and well, the sun shone and the choir sang. (too bad not in real life because the blocks were actually getting fairly wet; if you look closely, you'll see raindrops!

Yep, yep, this is it.

As for the transparency, I do think my medium and dark are spot on, but I think my light pink is too light. I mean, overall, it's great and I like it, but there's a bit of a jump between the light and the medium. I am very happy to say that I put my menopausal melon through a good math workout, both good old figuring and also geometry, and was able to get all the A (light) pieces out of the yardage I had with a mere 5" by not quite WOF to spare! I had to reinvent the cutting directions but it all worked out; I didn't even have to piece to get the long 24.5" pieces either, yay.

If you haven't joined in, it's not too late! Yvonne has all the directions under the Wayward Transparency link I provided, and the quilt stitches up really quickly. Each block is 24" square finished, so you have a 48" quilt with only four blocks, sweet!

I have a few posts percolating, so I might break my 'computer-free Sundays' rule and post again tomorrow. This quilt was stitched entirely on my 1947 Singer Featherweight with a brand new Little Foot, which I want to rave, er write about, along with the machine's story, long overdue. I picked it up on sale at Sewing Machines Plus (affiliate link) (just checked, it still is, only $19.99) because I was unhappy with the seam guide I had bought. More on that in the next post as well. I'm a new affiliate, though not a new customer, for Sewing Machines Plus, so clicking through on that link or the one on the sidebar will earn me a small commission on any sales. They sell a few brands of thread I really like, King Tut (LOVE) among them.
Thread...

Waaah, hope some of you got in on Connecting Threads (affiliate link) 50% off one day only threads sale yesterday, Friday.  If, like me, you didn't, at least they are still on for a decent deal, 30% off. This thread works wonderfully on my Avanté, minimal fuzz, straight line quilting or FMQ, it's terrific. I use it primarily with The Bottom Line in the bobbin. Anyhow, CT is having more of these one-day sale events this coming week, which are a surprise, so be sure you get their emails, and be sure (ask me how I know) to check your emails on a daily basis! The next flash sale is Nov. 20 and the one after that Nov. 22. They are having a week-long sale as well, (that affiliate link will take you to the correct page): 50% off on stash builders and pre-cuts fabric, to mention just one.

Thank you so very much for your support of this blog. 😘

Linking up
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts

Wayward Transparency

I am really excited to be taking part in Yvonne's new QAL at Quilting Jetgirl. You know that I love shadow quilts, and I find transparency ones just as fascinating. I made her Triangle Transparency pattern that I named Radiance, love the way it turned out. This one should be just as lovely.

However...
Shocker alert: Sandra cannot make up her mind. You’d think pulling three fabrics, just three, ranging from light to dark in one colourway, especially when one of the colourways is blue, of which I have an abundance, would be a snap. Note, never overabundance because one can never have an overabundance of fabric, right?

It wasn't.

A snap.

First of all, I got sidetracked (shocker #2 I know; sorry to lay all this on you).

It's October, Breast Cancer Awareness month, and as I walked over to the blues cupboard (cough..yup they have their own cupboard) I spied my pinks shelf and thought, I wonder...  This is a cause very near to my heart, and to which I contribute monthly. It has touched and taken too many of my friends and family. The top fabric I had just got, like that very day, from the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop clearance sale, a Joel Dewberry. Not sure I have enough of it however, but I do have enough of Kona in dusty pink.

I put them in the monochromatic setting, always a great idea if you are doing a quilt with value. When I took a Colourwash class many years ago, we used a Ruby Beholder, which is a red see-through thick plastic viewer that takes out the colour. You can also view a quilt in very dim lighting, something I wrote about here. These days, if you have a smartphone, which most of us do, it's a snap to take the photo, tap edit and set the filter to monochromatic.

Here is that run of fabrics. Not bad, although I see that areas of the pink bubbles fabric might blend into my medium fabric. The bubbles fabric is left over from my first Benartex e-zine publication, Coins of the Atocha, aka On the Plus Side, and the medium is left over from a quilt I made for Brianne 10+ years ago.

Okay, well, let's go back to the first plan and pull out three blues.

This is an older Fabricland navy, an Essex linen from Canton Village Quilt Works, and 'Winterfall' by Lecien from Fat Quarter Shop. I could run them either way, from light to dark, or from dark to light.

Here they are in monochromatic:

These work well; however, I'm a little concerned about the stripe in the Lecien Fabrics one.

Guess I'll just wait until October 13 to see the cutting instructions, and make a decision! That, or I have yet to investigate my batik potential candidates.

I have a little happy dance to share. Tish messaged me last night that I, well, my quilt, is a covergirl!

Let Your Star Shine is in the top left corner of Benartex's contest announcement. Well that made my day! You may want to check out their contest; looks to be some terrific prizes.

Linking up
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication