Thursday, July 26, 2007

Ready for Quilting

Here's the angel quilt, layered and safety-pinned. That's Hobbs black 80/20 batting you see, which I later trimmed back so I could turn and baste the backing to the front. See this post for my layering and basting process. Oh, and that white patch next to the lake on the right? That's a bit of paper-backed fusible stuck on a piece of batik; While inserting safety pins, I noticed I'd missed extending one leaf over the seam, so I cut another leaf and fused it in place.

"Um, but where's the angel?" you're undoubtedly asking yourself. Never fear - it's waiting in the wings (no pun intended). I decided the sky, mountains, lake and beach would be easier to quilt if I didn't have to work around the angel to do it. I'm still pondering some technical issues about how it will be attached, or more specifically, how I will finish/secure the edges of the last layer. But however I decide to do it, there's no reason it has to be done before the quilting. I think I'll get a better flow to the quilting lines this way. And because the angel has an extra layer behind it, there should be no problem with shadowing through of either colors or stitching lines.

Ok, go ahead...ask your other question: "Do you realize the bottom of the quilt top isn't straight?" Yes indeed. Back when I was sketching to come up with something other than just a solid background for the angel, I played with echoing curves that would delineate the two shore lines, and I found I liked the idea of the beach also curving below the ends of the side panels. This perhaps is another case of one thing leading to another (see Tuesday's post) because normally, curving any edge of a quilt is not my thing. Remember this quilt and how I came to leave its bottom edge curved? See here for the details.


1 comment:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I'm really liking this background for your angel. I had to go back to an earlier post to remember what colors the angel was. This piece has come a long way from its beginnings and it is fun to go back and see the progress you have made.