Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hooray!


For those of you that have been following this collaboration quilt, you can all breathe a big sigh of relief with me.  If you are new to my blog, you can read about it here. After many, many hours of cutting, recutting, piecing, ripping out, repiecing, etc., it is finally finished!

I decided to piece the left hand side of the background in larger pieces to mimic the big pieces in the right side of the hemisphere. I was a little nervous abut piecing the semi-circle into the background, but I've done a lot of curved piecing in my day and this was a big gentle curve.  Even so, I did a ton of pinning and clipping and sewed very slowly and carefully.  I was hoping to enter it into Houston as a two person quilt, but I missed that deadline, so I will try for another show that will accept a two-person quilt and try for Houston next year.

Now for the quilting.  But first I am going to cut it (gasp!) into three unequal sections and quilt each one separately and make it a triptych. I want to do a lot of fancy quilting on it and since it now measures 91" x 43" there is no way that I can do it justice on my Bernina.  I don't know how other people shove a big quilt thru their small machines, but I know that I can't. I won't start the quilting right away.  I need to take a break from it and I have another quilt (much smaller, thankfully) that needs to be started and that has a deadline.

Now I can put away the extra table that I brought into my studio and put away all those brown and neutral fabrics.

Be sure to click on the picture for a bigger view.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

15 comments:

kathy loomis said...

It looks beautiful! Just as I had envisioned it!

(are you sure about slicing it into three pieces???? 43 inches isn't that wide to get under the Bernina)

Norma Schlager said...

I hadn't thought of it that way, Kathy. I was just pondering the 91 inches. I'll have to think about it.

Unknown said...

That is exceedingly cool! I agree that you can quilt it with your regular machine. You can fluff and stuff the 43" easily, I would think. Well done!

Linda M said...

Love it!

ann said...

FABULOUS! It will put a strain on your arms to push it. However, if you do it over time, you will get it done.

Martha Ginn said...

It's good to see the completed top, Norma! (And I vote to leave it whole.) I think what you have done with the wider strips with mortar on the left to be a similar but smaller design element to the larger strips with mortar on right is genius! A great connection which adds an unexpected surprise. By working with the sides like top and bottom, you can quilt this on your Bernina.
Martha Ginn

Martha C. Hall said...

Love what you've done with this, Norma. Good luck with the quilting phase. Do you have an idea of how you will quilt it yet?

Unknown said...

You are brave - really brave, cutting this masterpiece .....
but I think you are right, it will work perfectly as a triptych
I look forward to seeing it transorm

Pamela Price Klebaum said...

Whatever way you decide to show it, it is truly magnificent.

Eleanor Levie said...

What an amazing eye and confident artistic sense you have, Norma. I totally support your decisions and look forward to seeing this. Only hope the venue doesn't put the blue ribbon right on the triptych panel...

Sue said...

....and your exquisite FMQ will only make it more stunning. Glad I got to see it in progress.....you took on a challenge and WON !!

d r e w said...

whoa, this is awesome.

mad elena said...

Hooray for you, Norma! Great job of finishing the composition and staying with the original vision.

Kevan Lunney said...

This is truly wonderful. The continuity of the design, the flow between the textures and scale of those textures is its success. If that is broken into pieces and some of the design is lost with seam allowance, I am afraid that the image will suffer. The only way I would be willing to risk it would be if someone did a digital mock up of the pieces minus the seam allowances.Make visual decisions visually. everyone has different ways to work but I have found that keeping the fabric loose and bunchy makes it easier to move only the available slack of the quilt. If you wind it up tight you have to muscle the whole weight as a unit. Prevent the quilt pulling away from the needle, and hanging off the table. One way is to create a wall of books or put your table against the wall behind your machine that bunches the quilt. also put a table to your left to hold the weight.Throw the excess over your left shoulder. and take pictures!

Robin said...

This is great--like how you put the large and small pieces opposite one another for scale and movement.