Wednesday, April 27, 2016

AQS Interview and Island Batiks Rain Ripples Part 1

Hah!  New skills!  I've learned how to put in video on the blog!  Hmm......ideas for later.  Here is my video with Bonnie Browning about my quilt from AQS Paducah last week!  


Since it's April, Island Batik's challenge for it's Ambassadors is April Showers.  We got a list of all sorts of different "spring" images to pick from to use in our quilts.  I was going to do a bug wearing rain boots.  I even made the drawings, but decided it wasn't quite what I wanted in the end.  The modern quilt movement bug has bitten me and I knew raindrops would make an interesting modern quilt.


So then I started thinking about raindrops and the shapes they make when they hit a puddle of water.  I decided to use a rainbow of colors because rain always make me hope for rainbows.  Two of the fabrics are from Island Batik's Fire Island line, two are from their basic batiks, and two are from their Florida Oranges line.  

I cut out a bunch of raindrops and laid them out in a rainbow.  Then the fun part: quilting it!  I decided to call the quilt Rain Ripples since that is what I'm trying to emulate.  

I was lucky enough to receive some wonderful variegated Fantastico thread from Superior Threads as part of being an Island Batik Ambassador.  One thing I absolutely love about Superior's variegated threads is how often they change color.  It's about every inch or two.  Many variegated threads only change every 8-12 inches.  This is one reason I find Superior's variegated threads to be well, Superior!  I also really like that the labels on the threads tell you which needle will work best.  What a fantastic idea that makes it easy for quilters to remember.

Here are the colors I used to quilt Rain Ripples:



Purple done!  I decided that instead of overlapping the ripples like would actually happen in real life, I would simply have the rings stop when they hit each other.  You can see this clearly in the picture below.



Once I'd started quilting the ripples in my beautiful varigated thread, I had to think about what I was going to do with the background.  Originally I was going to use a white thread, but changed my mind and decided on a light gray thread I also received as an Ambassador, Superior's Masterpiece Thread.  This thread is a 50 weight 3-ply cotton that is great for quilting and piecing.  I've never used it before and found it fantastic and easy to work with.  I also liked that the ripples have a sheen (polyester thread) and the background quilting won't (cotton thread).  It's a nice contrast.





Ready for background quilting.  One thing I'm enjoying about working on small projects for my blog is using all sorts of different combinations of batting to see what I like the best and might want to use in my competition pieces.  For this quilt I used two layers of Hobbs Wool batting.  It was REALLY fluffy, almost too much.  I love puff, but this quilt had so much that quilting those pebbles was a challenge because the fabric was so puffy it sometimes left puckers or tucks in the top if I wasn't spreading it apart really tightly with my hands while quilting.


Here's the quilting all finished except for the binding.  I have something special planned for that.  Come back Saturday to check it out!  And don't forget to join my Machine Applique Adventures Facebook group!


Happy Quilting!
Suzy



11 comments:

  1. I love it. What a great idea. Makes a rainbow out of a rainy day!

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  2. Very cool idea for the quilting. I like it!

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  3. Congrats on your win! That is so wonderful. Really cute and creative project for the event.

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  4. Congrats on the win, and cute quilt!

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  5. That's a great work. Congratulation. Iam thrilled!!

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  6. Loved listening to the video! I would be so nervous and you seemed so relaxed!! Congrats! The quilt is beautiful.

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