Finally Finished - the secret project!
Lots of details here.
This project started with a bible verse in my head many months ago, but without knowing what to do with it.
Back in June and just before our trip to Nashville, some of my quilting buddies and I took a day to shop in some of the area quilt and needlework shops. While in one of them one of the girls was looking at the panels. I am not a panel person. But I wandered over there and decided to look, and that was when this panel told me that it had to be part of the bible verse quilt. Without knowing what I was going to do with it, I purchased three additional pieces of the companion prints and hoped for the best.
The bible verse is "Be still, and know that I am God ... " It is the favorite verse of my friend Vanetta ("Nita"), whom I have had the privilege of getting to know over the last 20 years. Our connection is through Kelsey, the Hubs’ and my stepdaughter, and Nita has been a wonderful and loving parental figure to her. I could not ask the Lord for more blessings for this woman who stepped in when Kelsey's biological mother or the Hubs and I could not. She retired recently and has moved back to her family’s home, and I knew I wanted to make a quilt for her.
I'm not known for using panels, but since I have purchased three this year, I decided it's maybe not a bad thing to do. This panel is gorgeous. It's from the Whisper line by Northcott. I love their Stonehenge, Mirage and Toscana fabrics which are also in the Whisper collection. Not a lot of work went into the piecing of the quilt top, but I did map it out in Electric Quilt first to make sure I was happy with the dimensions. I added one border of the companion print to the panel that extended the dandelions to the left and right and the sky and field to the top and bottom of the panel, and added a border of smaller dandelion heads all around. It's a very ethereal look. I had planned to use the darker blue fabric from the "Be still and know" words as an additional border, but looking at it in EQ and seeing it on the wall made me decide the contrast would take away from that ethereal quality.
The entire bible verse is on the quilt. In the upper portion are the words "Be still and know that I am God", while the remainder of the verse is in the lower right corner in two arcs. I spent a lot of time finding the right font to use for the lettering, and an even longer time modifying it to my satisfaction before cutting all of the letters. I talked in a previous post about using the ScanNCut and trying a time-saving but fabric-eating blade, which only added stress and more time to the project. But I love learning more about the ScanNCut and I believe I will be doing a lot more applique utilizing it. I already have another project that's stewing in my head (and heart) that I think will be in creation mode soon.
After fusing the words to the quilt top, I stitched them down using Invisafil 100 wt thread in clear and smoky taupe with a straight stitch. On my Bernina 790Plus I had to adjust the top tension to 2.5 and it was smooth sailing. I also used my #24 foot to stitch the letters in free-motion style. I'm still not comfortable using the BSR to free motion; I feel good doing it manually.
After knotting all the appliqué threads, I put the top up on the design wall to figure out the best possible quilting design. Edge-to-edge, of course, and I wanted to design it. I spent two days working on a dragonfly design. A lot of my family and friends believe I am a very patient person, but I'm telling you, not when it comes to digitizing. While I have accepted that I have limitations, I have also taken advantage of some tools that have helped me along, including a subscription to Creative Fabrica which allows me to download almost any possible shape I could want. If it's available in SVG format it's even better. But I also find that even though I'm known for moving in a straight line, when it comes to digitizing you have to move forward in a continuous fashion for edge-to-edge, and darn it if I can't seem to make that work when using symmetrical shapes.
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| The dragonfly I attempted to digitize...maybe another day. |
I have spent lots of time reviewing stitch-outs trying to come up with the secret sauce, but after two days of working on the design and finding a design on Etsy that was perfectly acceptable and cost me $2.47, I sighed and said, "Order up!" It actually ended up being free because I had a gift card. I think I need another digitizing boot camp, but watching this quilting design stitch out gave me a clue in how I should be digitizing, and that’s helpful.
And speaking of Etsy--on a whim I decided to subscribe to their Insider program just over a year ago. It did save me quite a bit on shipping, but now there's only discounted shipping associated with the program (as far as I can tell) and now I'm wondering if I want to continue to be a member--especially since I'm trying my best to not buy more fabric. It's a non-issue when buying digital designs, which is what I will continue to purchase.
And things were moving so smoothly that when I was ready to stitch out the edge-to-edge design, I could not do it—four dogs were in the house and thought they had to be glued by my side while in the former sewing room. That’s when I declared to the Hubs that we had to change the rooms, and I finally got to finish quilting the quilt a week ago.
But back to the quilt. The binding was a striped-ish fabric from the same line and I knew when I saw it that it was perfect for binding. This fabric also guided me with the aforementioned decision to not use the dark blue as an outer border. I used my serger to attach the binding to the front of the quilt, and finished it by hand sewing it to the back.
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| Waiting for the water to remove the markings (like watching paint drying) |
The label was designed in Embrilliance StitchArtist 3, and was a good opportunity to play with the text in a circle function. This is actually a function of Embrilliance Essentials. The entire verse is recited in the outside circle, with the made-for-and-made-by info, and a cross in the center. It took 49 minutes to stitch out (hey, the same length of time it took one set of words to be cut on the ScanNCut!).
I finished it on Saturday, October 17, and gifted it to Nita today.
Quilt deets:
A big part of the enjoyment in making this quilt was starting out with absolutely no idea of what I was going to make until I saw the panel. Then it all just flowed and I'm so grateful for the ability to do what I did on this quilt. Epiphany moments are blessings, folks; and I thank God for them.
The quilting of the Pumpkin Pie quilt is in progress on the Luminaire, and the die I'm using to cut the fabric for the baby quilt is due to arrive Monday. Plans are plenty!
Thanks for reading. I love what I'm doing and feel like this is my happiest quilting year ever. Here's hoping they're all this great or even better in the future. Have a happy weekend, and go make!
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