Friday, May 17, 2013

Tropical Sunrise - Finished just in time for Bloggers Quilt Festival!

So happy to report that Tropical Sunrise is finished!  The last of the binding was stitched down on Monday morning just prior to our quilt guild meeting, where it made its debut entrance into the world of the finished quilt.  I'm so very happy, both to have this finally completed, and also because I'm liking the way it turned out.  We've had off and on showery weather the past few days, and since I don't have anyplace to hang it outside that will accommodate its size, these photos were all taken indoors under various lighting conditions.
I machine pieced this approximately two years ago on my Singer 201A Centennial machine, and began quilting it approximately 2 1/2 months ago.   All quilting was done on my Janome Horizon, using Aurifil 50 wt. thread throughout.  For the ditch quilting I used black (color 2692) on the top.  All free motion quilting was done with a wonderful variegated yellow/gold (color 4150) as the top thread, and for the bobbin thread I chose color 2370 which blended with the back for both ditch and free motion quilting.

 I really loved how the variegated gold Aurifil 4150 played with all of the batiks, blending into the background of some and providing gorgeous contrast on others.  This is fast becoming one of my favorite go-to colors for machine quilting!
For the free motion ferns I lightly sketched in a few guide points for the stem with a Sewline ceramic lead pencil, and then quilted all the fronds freehand, trying to keep them organic in nature.

Here is a closer view of  a primary block:
And a secondary block:
And shown here on a queen size bed - sorry the lighting is not good in this room.
Stats for this quilt include:
     Pattern Source:  The Premier Fall Issue of Quilt Sampler Magazine (2004)
     Pattern Designer:  Jill Petit of Jillybean's Pride, Oakville, Ontario
     Finished size:  87-1/2 x 112 inches
     Machine pieced and machine quilted by me on my domestic sewing machines

I would love to make a smaller throw size version of this quilt sometime in the future, and may just have enough batik scraps to make one approximately 60x60 inches in size, perfect for our couch.

So happy to have this major finish to enter in the Spring 2013 Bloggers Quilt Festival in the  Home Machine Quilted category.    You can see all the quilts entered in this category by clicking here.   There are many more categories in the Festival that you can access by checking out the main Festival post here or clicking on the Festival button in the right sidebar above.  Enjoy the Festival!
This quilt is #9 in the Home Machine Quilted Category.






17 comments:

Debbie said...

It is so beautiful! You did an amazing job on all of it, especially the quilting. I love those ferny type leaves myself. Great choices in your thread, too. Overall, a favorite of mine!

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Amazingly beautiful, i love it. Your color choices are beautiful.

Kyle said...

Your quilt is absolutely beautiful and I'm glad you've entered it in the Festival. Everyone is going to love seeing it. The free motion ferns are awesome. What a fantastic work of art.

CitricSugar said...

Beautiful job - your quilting is amazing!

April said...

Beautiful! those colors are amazing. :)

Mary-Kay said...

Beautiful quilting for a beautiful quilt!

Gemma@prettybobbins said...

Beautiful quilting! Well done :)

Lonci said...

That's one amazing quilt, congratulation:)))

Barbara said...

This is amazing, Pat. I can't wait to see it in person.

Rachaeldaisy said...

Wow, that is really impressive machine quilting, especially as the quilt is so big!!! A really beautiful quilt, congratulations on finishing it in time for the festival!

Patti said...

Gorgeous! Love how the variegated thread looks too.I'll have to look for that gold colour Aurifil!

Ruth said...

That is one gorgeous quilt! The fern quilting is lovely. Gold is a good color for lots of quilts and I use it a lot, but my favorite thread doesn't come in variegated. I wish it did.

Quiltin Jenny said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I will have to look for that color thread because you are right - it makes the quilting extra special.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Spectacular quilt! So much detail work, I can not imagine! I can see why you would be happy!

Margaret said...

Wow, that's a massive quilt and a massive amount of work. Thanks for sharing.

Eileen said...

Wonderful quilt with fantastic quilting. Thanks for sharing and have a great day

jeifner said...

Beautiful piecing!