TGIFF – An Ultramarine Crystal

Welcome to TGIFF!

Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday! I am pleased to be your host and sharing my finish. One of the joys of hosting, however, is that I get to see all the pretties you will link up as the weekend progresses. The party begins at 6 pm on Thursday evening and continues through 11:55 pm Saturday (EDT). If you don’t have a link this week, you can find the weekly party here and join in any week.

An Ultramarine Crystal

Those of you who follow my blog, know I was doing the Planview QAL with Yvonne Fuchs. This is her pattern and I thoroughly enjoyed making it. I blogged about it here and here, and have a little more to fill you in on! I decided on the name because I loved the angular edges of the design and the way your eye moves from the different shades of teal.

When I left you last, it was on the frame getting quilted. Here you can see the entire quilt nearly quilted on my HandiQuilter Sweet 16 (prostitcher and little foot frame). The dark blue areas on the left and right were too long for the width of my quilting area. Therefore, the quilt needed to be turned and reloaded onto the machine. I really wanted the quilting to emphasize all the fun areas in the quilt. For me, the time I spent doing the custom quilting was well worth it.

Yes, there were some trying times in quilting it. Fortunately, I won at bobbin chicken and finished a row without running out of bobbin thread. Some of the outlining of the entire design could, however, use some more precise placing of the lines. I think I know how to remedy it next time. This is a child’s quilt – no destination yet – so I think they won’t mind.

The graphic quilting design that I used is called Wrenchworks. My usual choice would have been some curved lines with so many straight lines in the quilt, but it just didn’t feel right.

I also used a few other designs for quilting. One was the Quarter Square Triangle Pinwheel and the other was the Corner to Center Star. I think they all worked well on the quilt. The other areas were designed with Prostitcher Designer and then moved as designs to my machine. Sadly, I have not done this as much as I should, however, this taught me I need to do more of it.

I chose the backing because I love the idea of sleeping under this colorful forest. There were plenty of blues in this fabric, so I thought it would work well. In this close-up, you can see how much texture the quilting gives to the quilt. This fabric is “Fanciful Forest” #33570 by Momo. It really is just gorgeous and has a lovely hand.

Standard practice for me is to wash the quilt before it goes to a new home. This serves two purposes: 1) to check for fabric bleeding and deal with it should it occur, and 2) to hide the imperfections. The little wobbles and occasional tension problems all go away with a good washing.

Quilt Stats

An Ultramarine Crystal 40″ x 48″
Fabrics: Kona Solids, Island Batik Grey, Moda Fanciful Forest
Batting: Quilters Dream Select Cotton
Quilting Threads: Glide Navy, Superior So Fine 471, 408 & 473 and Magna Glide Linen Bobbin
Quilting Designs: Wrenchworks, QST Pinwheel, Corner to Center Star, and custom designs by me.

Linky Party

Please link up your finished quilt project from this week. We love to see and celebrate your finishes.

Coming Up on the Blog

Finished PopStar 
Napkins for the Island Art Walk Sale 
Challenge Quilt for Rising Star
Tips and Tutorials on the 22 (9/22)

Link Ups

TGIFF
Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup
Off The Wall Friday Blog Link Up

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