Friday, June 12, 2015

Small Cogs on a Small Quilt

It's probably symptomatic of the stress/procrastination going on around my house this week, but look what I finished last night.

Cogs

It's drizzly and gray outside and so the natural light is not so good in the studio this morning ... but it may actually make it easier to see the quilting.

Cogs
This little quilt–it measures 18 by 22 inches–started with the intention to play with an idea of using hexies to create the look of cogs and wheels: a small study before making hundreds more hexies for a large scrappy bed quilt.

I used the last scrap of the pale gray hand-dyed fabric for the binding, but decided it needed just a bit of color, so inserted the purple piping.   (It is real piping, added to the binding using Susan Cleveland's Piping Hot Binding technique).

There are five different quilting designs in the background. Only the ghost cogs were marked before quilting; a straight ruler was used to quilt the grid for all of them.   It was interesting to play with grids made from 60 degree angles.

Many of the commenters on the WIP post liked the idea of the ghost cogs and encouraged me to leave them un-quilted, which I did ... if I do something like this again, I will think ahead and put an extra layer of batting behind the ghosts, so that they will have the same fullness/dimension as the appliquéd ones.

Here's a closer look at the quilting–I am not sure why the colors in the upper right photo came out so much better and closer to reality than the rest.

Cogs Cogs - quilting detail
Cogs - Quilting DetailCogs

Some of the photos aren't as sharp as I'd like ... I'm blaming the gray day and lack of natural light ... and may come back and replace them if/when the sun comes out.

I was surprised at how similar two of the designs look (upper left, lower right). The first is made from all straight lights (using a ruler) and the other has freehand curves.

Since it's been a while since I've finished something that I can share on my blog, I'm celebrating it at all these linky parties:

Can I get a Whoop whoop? on Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Crazy Mom Quilt's  Finish it Up Friday
Fabric Frenzy Friday on Fort Worth Fabrics
Free Motion Mavericks on Lizzy Lenard Vintage Sewing
QuiltShopGals' Creative Goodness
Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish Friday
WIPS Be Gone on A Quilting Reader's Garden

12 comments:

Linda in Calif. said...

This looks great! I love it. And yes, keeping the ghost cogs unquilted is the way to go.

Kitty said...

This is really cool! I really love the varied quilting, and the ghost cogs provide the perfect boundaries. Lovely!

Mary Huey said...

Thanks for sharing the close-ups of the quilting designs!!

Debbie said...

Beautiful show off of hexagons, Sophie! Skillfully done!

Terri said...

Love your quilting and the quilt. Very pretty.
Hugs

Marei said...

Really do like the way this came out and I'm glad you left some ghosts as they add a lot to the design. If you're interested in your ghosts having a little fullness you can always slit the backing and insert batting....ala trapunto...and then stitch the backing shut or use fusible to close your slit. EZPZ to do.

Cynthia's Creating Ark said...

Beautiful. I really like the ghost cogs.

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

Congrats on a fabulous and beautiful finish! You outdid yourself here.....again!

Did you hand quilt? I was thinking it was machine quilted but the close ups look like hand quilting......

I truly love it!

glen

Anonymous said...

It looks great, and I don't see a thing I don't like. Thanks for the close-ups.

Stephanie said...

Love the combination of the brights with the sedate background colour.

DianeLoves2Quilt said...

I am usually not a fan of "modern" quilts but your cogs are converting me. The colors and the quilting are exquisite. There is absolutely nothing negative about your space!

Gretchen said...

Oh my! This is stunning! I absolutely adore it! And it looks like ultimately you had fun with it. The piping is the perfect touch.

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