Friday, June 24, 2011

"Rainy Spring"...Assembling the Center

As I was trimming my blocks and re-pinning them up on the design wall, I happened to pin one of the center blocks upside down.
It was one of those accidents that changed the direction of the quilt in a fairly big way!  I decided to make the center into a circle, truly representing our seemingly absent sun.

I knew that I had to complete the circle shape though, and that required some fairly technical surgery this morning.

I began by sewing the blocks together, but leaving the seams open where the appliqued little quarter circle shapes would go in.  I knew I had to line them up perfectly, and wanted to have as much control as I could.

 First I had to make the four little corner lace collages.

 Then I pinned them in place and appliqued them along both sides of the corner of the block.

 The ribbon was carefully pinned into place and sewn down, so that when the center blocks were completely sewn, the circle would look round and continuous.  Dicey!!!


Not too bad.

Here is the center sewn together, fairly well pressed, fairly round too.  *Whew!*

But I still needed some sun.  We all know it's there, behind the clouds....

 The Accuquilt Go! cutter is absolutely invaluable when perfect circles are needed, in this case out of holographic and bonded lame.


And then I dove right off the deep end.
A long time ago, I saw a quilt by Terrie Hancock Mangat where she painted all over it after the whole quilt was done.  I thought that was so gutsy of her to do that.  So what the heck, I decided to fuse some Angelina fiber over my finished and assembled center blocks.

No going back! Especially after I fused down my Angelina layer with this great new product from Shades Textiles, a very very fine fusible web called SoftFuse.  I got it at Quilt Market.

Oh my.
Could this have actually worked?

I think so.  When the real sun shines on it this glows.  ;-)  Wish I could capture that here in a photo...the quilt actually looks much more yellow-ey golden green than this...


...like the trees do at the end of the day when the sun slips in under the clouds, sideways, and lights everything up.

I took quite a flyer at this stage of my quilt, and could have crashed in disaster.  But it was very fun to take the risk! Now maybe I can finally sew the rest of those blocks together...

13 comments :

Marty52 said...

OOooooo... you are one brave, chic, chickie!! ;0) It sure worked though... love the way you appliqued the corners in there. The color progression on this is perfect, y'know.

Momma Bear said...

"chance favors the prepared mind"
i love when that happens!
a little bit of fortuitousness,
what a beautiful mistake!

Cathy said...

Your piecing is spectacular, as always, and the colors just GLOW. Touche for adding the Angelina and designing on the fly. Isn’t that when the most serendipitous things happen? Oh, this is a double delight to watch - fun and beautiful. And I hope you get your share of sunshine soon! Hugs, Cathy

Pamela Kellogg said...

Whoa! This is really something Allie! Love the Angelina! I'm going to a fiber show today and plan to pick up some more Angelina. I actually need to plan to use it! Sometimes, I'm so eager to stitch, that I forget to use some of my cool stuff!

Sandies' Patch said...

This is so beautiful!
Well done!

Sandie xx

Elizabeth said...

Spectacular effect and a beautiful result!!! Love it !! the center takes it from terrific to SUBLIME!!! Wish I could see it in person!!! So thankful that you are sharing it with us!!!!

Summerset said...

Gorgeous! It worked beautifully!

Jackie said...

I so love your posts...this quilt really does have the sun shining on it!

Debra Dixon said...

Very clever!

Susan Elliott said...

Oh baby! I like this new direction!

I like how the glow from the golden greens on the edge of the quilt amplify the center sun. The angelina was a BRAVO move!

One question...how does that soft fuse stuff compare to Misty fuse?

Suzanne said...

It came together absolutely perfect..good leap of creative faith!

Anonymous said...

That's amazing and brilliantly creative - even in the photos it does glow!

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