Bloom: Part II

Bloom: Part II

71" x 71" (the other side of Seeds)

Here is the full view!! So pretty!

And a close up:

Where we left off after the previous post:

Since I knew my design was going to be a bit asymmetrical, I knew that I needed some organization of the design pieces, especially as it got bigger.  So, I pinned the right side of the front side of the quilt (Seeds) to the design wall (wrong side out), and placed the pieces of Bloom on top of it, where they would actually be centered.  The center of Bloom was designed to be right on top of the blue seed from Seeds.

I can't tell you how many times I thought about making this a one sided quilt, with the 'seeds' as the background for this big bloom.  It is definitely compelling! Anyway, by designing it on the go like this, I was able to plan better as I got closer to the edges of the quilt. Here are some photos near completion, where you can see the grid quilting from the front side (Seeds).

This one is the entire back after it has been trimmed and is ready for binding. 

After the I completed the quilting from the front, and bound the quilt, it was time to start the hand quilting from the back. I opted for a double line of heavy 12 wt. thread, Sew Sassy.  It was perfect and Superior Threads had enough colors to mimic the gradient of my fabrics!  I also wanted the quilting to look the same on the front as it did on the back.  This is really NOT easy.  The only way minimize the space between stitches and have the stitches look similar on the front and the back is with 'stab and jab'. The needle needs to go in at a 90 degree angle (not obvious from this picture, sorry!) This is a very slow process, on an already longer than expected project.  Just when I thought I had gotten close to the finish line, it moved further back! Ultimately it looked good, and was just what I wanted.

  

And, lastly, it just worked out this way, but I was ready, if necessary to take those blue arcs right up and into the hanging tube.  I got lucky this time!  Just a simple and plain white hanging tube was all it needed. Yeah for the little things!