Wednesday, February 7, 2018

The orphan found a home - "Grand Illusion" Quiltville's 2014 mystery quilt

Some people open their doors to stray dogs and cats.  Me?  Well, yes I probably couldn't turn a stray animal away, but neither can I turn away a quilt that needs finishing.

This beautiful "Grand Illusion" was passed on to me by a friend who realized that all the little pieces that make up a Bonnie Hunter quilt just aren't her thing.  She's much happier doing paper piecing.  But me?  I love all the small pieces.  My friend had the majority of the quilt put together.  I just had to assemble the rows, finish the pieced borders and sew it together.

I could hardly wait to add the quilting stitches to it.  I chose a pantograph called "Cashmere".
 
 
I usually like my thread to disappear but because of the mostly dark colours in this quilt decided to go a bit wild and quilt it with a darker teal thread (Glide brand).

Laying down the first row

Millie with Quiltpath in motion!



I'm very happy with the results on this quilt. I love the movement and the feathers.  I haven't bound it yet because I will need to find a suitable batik for binding.  Or I could just use a black that I have in my stash.  No rules right?  Who says it has to be a batik binding?  Who am I kidding?  I'm kind of a purist so I know I won't be fully satisfied unless it's a batik binding. That will have to wait until Saturday when I can get to the quilt shop.

I haven't decided what to do with this finished quilt yet but have a couple of ideas.

The binding pile is growing!  That's one thing about having a longarm - I'm finishing quilts so quickly that I'm getting behind in my binding.  Oh...and I haven't done any hand quilting or worked on my eternal hexi project (La Passion Hexagon quilt by Grit Kovacs) since Millie arrived in the house.  You could say we are having a bit of fun over here.

And on to the next one!

Mavis

Quilt Stats:  Batik front; Backing from Connecting Threads; Glide Thread; Hobbs 80/20 batting
Completed:  February 2018.