Thursday, April 16, 2015

Le Challenge de Tradition

The theme for March Le Challenge is TRADITION.
Patchwork and quilting are steeped with it, making the challenge pretty open-ended!
I began with a chunk of Las Golondrinas (Alexander Henry) as my theme-fabric. It is filled with lovely Mexican tradition, and named for the Swallows.
 All the patchwork fabrics were selected from the theme fabric.
 I couldn't quite cut into the it though, and it ended up on the back!
 
Here is the finish - I love all the pretty bits!
Quite traditional, those HSTs. The pattern is designed by Kimberly Jolly, the Aurifil Designer of the Month. I linked this up for their monthly thread giveaway (at Flickr). No dice, but perhaps one of these month's my name will be drawn!

I decided to break tradition a bit with some unconventional free-motion quilting.
Every mini is an opportunity for growth!
I experimented with some FMQ, Angela Walters style.
This was my first time using wool batting, Quilter's Dream. (machine washable!). I wanted to play with it before going with a full size quilt.
It feels like a poly, and interestingly, when I read the fine print, it actually has some poly in it. It quilted well and has great texture for enhancing quilting.
I like this style of quilting a lot, and I improved as I went along (wish I hadn't started in the center!), but I still prefer less density - parallel lines versus all the points. Especially on the back, it just seems a bit dense to be cuddly.  

The binding is machine-stitched, and I tried invisible thread in the bobbin to hide the stitching on the front.
Hardly noticeably, and it stitched without incident!
 
Thank you for visiting!
Finish #1 Q2 FAL!

Check out Le Challenge!
The April Challenge is 'WOOD' !

14 comments:

  1. Great tradition idea and I love your quilting.

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  2. Gorgeous mini! Thanks for the info about the wool batting. Interesting it has poly in it. I never would have guessed.

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  3. This is beautiful! I love the fabrics, and that Auriful March mini pattern. Your quilting is gorgeous!
    I never thought to try the invisible thread in the bobbin for the machine quilting of the binding. Will have to try that next time!
    Susie

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  4. Really nice and I like the colors.

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  5. Fantastic! The quilting looks beautiful and I like your fabric inspiration. Thank for linking to le challenge!

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  6. It is stunning! Love the back fabric too - thanks for sharing on le challenge!

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  7. Lovely colors and quilting.
    Thanks for linking up at the TGIFF
    Love from Amsterdam.

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  8. Love your finished piece! I'm a sucker for rainbow colour palettes and your quilting in the white areas is fantastic. I keep meaning to jump on the Le Challenge bandwagon, but I never quite seem to manage it. One of these days the theme is going to speak to me and I'll be off to the races!

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  9. I love your mini and the quilting is outstanding!

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  10. This is just lovely! The colors and quilting and hst layout work together so nicely!

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  11. This is such a pretty mini! Love the colours and the quilting. I usually attach my binding to the back and then topstitch from the front leaving that seam line on the back. Using the invisible thread in the bobbin to hide the stitching on the front was a brilliant alternative!

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  12. Lovely mini - your quilting is just beautiful!
    *Visiting as a member of the official 2015 Finish-Along cheerleading squad*

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