Low Volume Loveliness Complete!

Let's start back where we left off shall we?  I talked about my low volume quilt here and here.  The verdict...

I love it!

I love this quilt.  It came out perfect.  I may have almost cried a few times during the process when I was pretty sure that I ruined it, but in the end, I am over the moon happy with it!

Quilting

This was decidedly harder.  I really like straight line quilting and the texture it adds to a quilt but I didn't want straight straight lines, you know what I mean?  I don't remember if I saw something that inspired me (probably) but I ended up playing with the idea of curved straight lines and a ripple effect.  I just kept drawing different things until I hit on a combination that I liked.  Check.


Now how to execute that?

I numbered the ripples in the order that I drew them and then started with the first one.  I used to plate to get a nice curve and then quilted that line first, then the ones inside of that.  Next, I quilted bigger and bigger circles until I was where I wanted that ripple to end.  Now comes the part where I ran into trouble.  My second biggest ripple was at the other end of the quilt and even though I spray basted, I didn't feel like I got a great "lock" on all the layers. So when I started quilting the second ripple, I just knew that I was going to end up with a bunching and puckering in the middle. NOOOO!!!  Not on this quilt! This quilt that I already loved, that I hard worked so hard on, that I had used precious scrap fabrics for!!!!  At this point, I am trying not to cry.  The husband looks confused, but knows enough to just tells me it will all be okay.

Okay, regroup.  Deep breath.  How was I going to fix this?

I marked where I wanted my curves to end for big ripple at the other end.  Then I went back to the side of the quilt I started with and began to fill things in based on my pattern.  I did  A LOT of smoothing and tugging, but in the end, there was only one teensy little pucker.  A huge sigh of relief.

Binding

So for once, I knew exactly what I wanted to bind my quilt with, black and white stripes.  I have seen both Rachel and Rita do this with low volume quilts and love the look.  Trouble was, I couldn't find any!  I even made a comment on one of Rachel's blog posts, to which she kindly responded, unfortunately to say, she had no idea where she had gotten it!  Hmmm.

I headed out to trusty and giant Fabric Depot to find something.  I came home with a mostly black print with white script text.  I was feeling good.  It got the binding cut and sewed on.  I was feeling less good.  It was SO black.  But since this is how my creative process tends to go:

I forged on with the hand stitching.  I think I was about halfway through when I just couldn't take it anymore.  I didn't like it, AT. ALL.  Let the ripping commence.  And the hunt for something new.  I was down in Eugene visiting my dad so I went to a local store there.  It's a tiny little place but has a decent selection of quilting cottons.  I found this checkered pattern and decided that it had the element I was really looking for: equal parts of black and white.

Round 2 of binding went smoothly and Voila!

Love!

It makes me happy every time I see it at my desk and even happier when I pull it onto my lap, over my shoulders or drag it into a meeting room! Oh like right now :)