Friday, 3 April 2020

Locked In The Grid

Going back to some of the quilts made but not posted on the blog - this was another of those project long in the planning, but quick in the making. As I normally don't use a lot of black and white fabrics, I had to collect quite a lot of those for some time, on the other hand, the bright fabrics were quite hard to choose from, as I have a lot of those ;))



(I don't even have proper photos of this quilt, only those shot with the phone.)

So, the idea was to create a triangular grid in a black and white gradient with bright butterflies fitted into the triangles. The butterflies are curve-pieced, each wing with a bit of background makes a separate triangular block.


The assembly for this was quite straightforward - triangles into rows, then the rows pieced tightener. The quilting was more of a challenge, as the background is already very busy with all the high-contrast prints. I decided to try Superior Threads Microquilter thread in light grey, which is almost invisible, but was quite naughty, even with the recommended Bottomline thread in the bobbin. I had to adjust the tension in every possible way and still the stitching is far from perfect in places. On the other hand, I haven't had my machine serviced in a while, so it may be her fault. Anyway, that was quite a change as I normally quilt in cotton thread, often in the 40 weight YLI threads, which I sneaked into this project anyway, creating sort of "flightpaths" for the butterflies in a bright variegated   tread, as well as simple lines on the wings.



As I said, the quilting is almost invisible, you really see the thread only on the darkest fabrics, but the texture turned out nice and flowy. 


I know it's hard to see in the photos, in real life it's all very subtle, too.


All in all, I like the way it turned out - simple but quite affective due to all the tensions going on with colour and value contrast and geometric versus organic shapes.

Linking up to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

9 comments:

  1. This is so beautiful!! It's the kind of piece that would invite you to sit and search for its jewels. Incredible!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gorgeous, Lena! Simple shapes, but so effective :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a fun project! Love the pop of color with the butterflies!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an ingenious way of incorporating butterflies! I love how the neutral background really brings the butterfly colors to life!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The quilt is wonderful! At first, I thought you appliqued the butterflies. Making them with curved piecing in the triangles must have been a lot of work, but they look perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love this piece, the butterfly units are so clever!!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...