Summer Quilting Project is Done!

Completed Grasshopper Quilt draped over my couch after surviving a long day at the judging for the SCQG quilt show

Finally finished the Grasshopper Quilt!! Progress seemed to be slow at first, and I wasn't sure I'd have the quilt finished for the upcoming show on 9/21, never mind the judging which just took place on 9/14.  But after an exhausting 6 weeks, the quilt is finished and we survived the judging!

So when you ask "What did you do this past summer?" For me, it's basically been this one thing for the last 6 weeks: Quilting the Grasshopper Quilt with a deadline fast approaching. So the lesson I've learned, finally, is not to enter a quilt in to a show unless it is totally completed. I've really got it now!! Not doing that ever again!! I really didn't know what I was getting myself into! Doing such detail quilting REALLY takes a lot of time!

Lots of things have been put on hold, and my very understanding business partner, Mary Ann, has been picking up the slack big-time! So a huge thank you to her, and of course, I will return the favor whenever she needs me! We have a very close and wonderful friendship, and it makes going to our studio such fun every day! My wonderful husband has also been very understanding and supportive and I love him the more for it!

Okay, venting over, here are some pictures-enjoy!

For the large brown center squares, I chose a funky feather motif with pebbles in the spine (kinda reminds me of a caterpillar a little bit, but no worries!). The feather is diagonal in the square, so the orientation of the feathers changes depending on which side of the quilt the block is on. Together, the feathers in these large brown squares form a  secondary diamond in the center of the quilt due to this tilting.

Funky feather design in large brown block on left side of quilt

For the large light green centers, I chose to do a variety of background fills separated by curved lines. Each block on the quilt is a little different, but these were the most fun to do!

 

 You can also see the marking I had to do to get the piano key lines in the sashing spaced correctly. Probably the most tedious quilting on this quilt because every seam had to be ditched first, then marked, then stitched before I got to the fun quilting in the block centers.

 As you can see, all the blocks with the small brown and light green centers were quilted with a swirl design in the dark green area. This looks so cool-better than I expected again!

All the light green centers have pebbles, and the dark brown centers have curved crosshatching. 

 In both cases, the thread highly contrasts with the fabric-it's much lighter than the dark brown, and much darker than the light green--still the same thread though! And, it's basically the same color as the dark green, so it's shows up as tone-on tone quilting in the swirls. Awesome effect!

Will post more pictures of the entire quilt after I get it back to the studio this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dora