Sunday 13 July 2014

Going for Gold

The 'Cosmos' for my piece 'Cosmic Split is complete.

Free motion quilting on gold metallic foil fabric show quilt for festival of quilts

Oh, I really enjoyed making the Cosmos! This is the part that I absolutely love doing - it is the reason I make quilts at all. I don't mark out the patterns in the circle, but just trust my eye and as I come to the end of the round, either squeeze up or draw out the last couple of  motives to fill the available space. Mostly, that works very well. If you look closely, you might find the odd motif that really has been hard done by!

Here are a couple of close-ups.

Free motion quilting on gold metallic foil fabric show quilt for festival of quilts

I wanted the texture of the background quilting to be a different, much smaller scale to the spheres. I've used a mixture of pebbling and a motif much used by one of my favourite quilters - Jacqueline Heinz. These two motifs are mixed in with two others on the black background that the gold will be stitched to.



The gold fabric has just about held out. If you look at it through a magnifying glass, you can see areas around the thread where there is a threatening split and a peek of white batting underneath. Just cross your fingers that it holds out until after the show and that the judges don't used magnifying glasses!!

Next comes the really scary bit - the Split in 'Cosmic Split' - otherwise known as the rotary cutter. It is always a bit of a nerve wracking moment to slice hours of quilting in two! I plan to finish and get this quilt off by the end of next week. The show is 2nd week in August, and I will post the finished quilt then.

This quilt has been such a journey, I think I will really miss it when it's finished. What shall I do next? It is a bit like finishing a really good book. On the one hand it is great to find out what happens in the end, on the other hand there is a hole left by its absence. Yet I often feel I need to savour the story a moment before I am able to plunge into the next one. Do you find that - with quilts or books?

Thanks for dropping by...


Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.
Anything goes Mondays @ http://marelize-ries.blogspot.co.uk/
Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/
Fabric Tuesday @http://quiltstory.blogspot.co.uk/    
Sew cute Tuesday @ http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/ 
WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/
WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays  @ http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.co.uk/  
WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @ http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca
I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/
Really Random Thursdays @ http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/
Needle and Thread Thursday @ http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/
Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

29 comments:

  1. This is really amazing. It looks fabulous and with such a difficult material. I hope the judges like it too; you deserve a prize. The judges probably won't know what an obstacle race this has been, but you deserve a prize for fortitude.

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  3. That is really really beautiful.

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  4. This is so very awesome and well worth all the aggregation it gave you. I would be terrified to cut it in half, but I know that you will conquer that, too. Yes, I know the feeling of finishing a really good book or quilt. But it's fun to look forward to the next one. I'm often thinking of the next one as I'm finishing the current one so I have something to look forward to.

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  5. Such a wonderful piece of work - congratulations, savour it for a little longer before starting another but I'm sure you'll fall in love with your new piece too

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  6. Wow, the quilting gives this such a lot of texture and character. Great to see how it's progressing.

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  7. Lovely, as always. Beautiful work.

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  8. Hilary your quilting is amazing as always, fabulous work!!

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  9. oh wow, that is just a jaw dropping piece!

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  10. WOW! Fabulous quilting, as ever, and fabulous photos to show it to us - thanks for sharing!

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  11. Your quilting is amazing!

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  12. Wow, what gorgeous work, Hilary! You were brave to choose that fabric! Do you keep track of your time? I am curious to know how long you spent on the quilting. Time well spent, of that I am sure. :)

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  13. This is just gorgeous! I admire your work and this is one of my favorites! Good luck at the show because you deserve high praise and prize!

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  14. LOVE the metallics! Really a beautiful job! Good luck.

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  15. absolutely fabulous. Such amazing thread work. I know what you mean by finishing something and the hole it leaves. You have been so obsessed by something and when it is done it leaves you a bit empty as you have poured so much of yourself into it... invested time energy and emotion. It is enormously satisfying too though. I tend to savour it (being Aussie I don't savor :) ) for a bit. At least when you still own it you get to pat it and look at it. When you give it away... man that is hard

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  16. Hello Hilary,

    I know exactly what you mean - I am halfway through a rippingly good book at the moment.

    The finished quilting is unbelievable - well worth all the trouble you had with all the misbehaving fabrics and the sunglasses.

    Love, Muv

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  17. Unbelievable! That's it.......Unbelievable!!!!!!

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  18. That is gorgeous! Lovely quilting and design!

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  19. Wonderfully creative! Using other than quilting cottons comes with it's own joys and challenges.

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  20. Wow! So, so gorgeous! The quilting is amazing!

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  21. Tongue hanging floor. And yes, I struggle after finishing a quilt and reading a book. It is like coming to the end of a life.

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  22. Oh my gosh. I love your work. You make me want to practice, practice, practice, and that's saying a lot.

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  23. Hilary, I LOVE the quilting on this piece! So intense and beautiful! I just love the texture in whole cloth quilts. The gold is gorgeous and I'm glad to hear it held up to the intense quilting (even if it was just barely!). Well done!

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  24. Absolutely beautiful! I hope the judges can see the beauty in it.

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  25. Incredible quilting, I'll keep my fingers crossed that you have no trouble finishing, and that you'll have success at the show. And what you describe at the end has been called a book hang-over, you probably have a quilt hang-over and need the quilter's equivalent of the hair of the dog: fabric!

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