More or Less Quilting -- Mission IMPOSSIBLE!

When I started my More or Less quilting journey, I agreed to

1.  Use a different spool of FabuLux* thread from WonderFil for each quilt
2.  Use black fabric, white fabric, and a matching fabric
3.  Make one small change between each quilt
4.  Get it done.  Don't quilt for show.
5.  Be transparent. Be willing to show what doesn't work.

Well.... I recently finished quilt #4: First Love and I am going to be transparent and tell you what didn't work.

More or Less: Majestic Sunrise (quilt #3)

In the white, I quilted swirly feathers, echoed them 1/4" away, and pebbled the background up to the solid line 1/4" away from the red stripe.

In the red, I quilted ribbon candy. Who is shocked by that?

In the black, I quilted diamonds up to the solid line 1/4" away from the red strip.  I filled the space between the diamonds with ribbon candy (again, who is shocked?) and quilted stars in the middle of each diamond.

I liked that quilt, but needed to change something before I quilted the next quilt.

I decided to use FabuLux First Love thread from WonderFil (purple, pink, and teal).  The one thing I changed was to not finish all of the rows of diamonds.

Want to see the finished quilt?

Can you see it?  No?

THIS QUILT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PHOTOGRAPH!!! One of my students this weekend took some photos that came out better than mine, but she also acknowledges that this quilt just can't be photographed!  There is very little contrast between the thread and the black fabric, but if I increase the light, the white fabric simply glows:

You can see the diamond stitching much better in this photo, but the white hurts my eyes.

Maybe some color correcting on the computer will help?

The stitching shows well (yay!) but the quilt is actually black, white, and purple.

Millions of thanks to Barbara and Ben Skaught for their photography efforts with this impossible-to-photograph quilt.  Your photos at least show the stitching, and that was something I was unable to accomplish on my own.

So how was that for being transparent and "keeping it real"?

Details on the quilting:

I stitched this on my sweet Sweet Sixteen named Hazel.  She and I had a great time!

White Fabric:  I used my Handi Quilter Wave Ruler to stitch the spine, added some spiral feathers, and echoed with my 1/4" foot open-toe foot.

I added pebbles and stitched all of the way to the line 1/4" away from the purple stripe.

Purple Stripe:  I stitched ribbon candy in the purple fabric and stitched 1/4" away from the seam line with my Handi Quilter Mini Scallop Ruler:

Black fabric:

I rolled a die and let chance determine how many diamonds I stitched in each row.

After I stitched all of the diamonds, I had to fill the in-between areas with ribbon candy and figure out how to outline the uneven edges of the diamonds.  Then I added stars inside each diamond.

A reminder of the stitching on the finished quilt:

Here's a brief video explaining the differences.  Warning:  the quilting is REALLY hard to see on the last quilt.


So what did I learn from this quilt and what might I do different next time?

1.  I learned that this quilt is impossible to photograph.  Contrast matters!
2.  I learned that this quilt is too large; my next one will be smaller.
3.  I learned that I like this "dissolving diamonds" look but want to improve the transitions and outlines around the uneven diamond edges.

The next quilt will be quilted with FabuLux Tropical Fruit Salad thread from WonderFil.  The contrast should be better (oh please, let it be better!).  I hope to make the next quilt about half the size of this one.

I'll show the next quilt in next week's newsletter.  Stay tuned!

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*I was tickled to select the colors for the FabuLux line of thread.  I'm teasing you with these samples, because the thread is not yet available for purchase.  Keep checking in and I promise to make a huge announcement as soon as you can buy it!