Shell quilt - time to think about quilting

[lobsterdesigns]

I've had this quilt sitting around for about nine months because I haven't had the faintest idea what to do with it. I suspected that it was best suited to free-motion machine quilting, and as I can't use a sewing machine that wasn't something I could just pick up overnight. However, my hand quilting has improved a lot since then, my stitches are smaller, I'm less afraid of seam allowances, and most importantly, I've learned more about quilting patterns. I remembered that there's a competition coming up which it's ideally suited to, as the theme is "Beside the Sea", and having just checked, the deadline is early July. Plenty of time, even if I quilt it quite densely, and at 22" x 26" I can afford to.

So here is my first idea, based on chatting with someone who brought up spirals. You can't go wrong with a good spiral!



And here is the original pieced top. If you fancy sketching yourself, try saving this photo to your computer, printing it out, scribbling over it in pencil, and then scanning it in or photographing it to show me.



What do you think, folkses? It's the first actual idea I've had. The wavy lines may be a bit on the dense side, they're about 1/3" apart as far as I can guess, though that's something I can fiddle with. I'm having difficulty working the curve around the spiral when it comes to the next line, but again, practice will probably help. Current idea is to alternate light and blue thread for the sea, one line of quilting per colour, and then move into cream and copper brown thread on the beach, where the wavy lines handily give a similar effect to wet sand.

For the shell - well, first of all remember that the centre of that shell is crazy small curved piecing, bits as little as 1/4" x 1/2", and even with stab stitch I do not want to be getting into that sort of thing unless I really have to. I'd quilt in the ditch around the main spiral, and then start quilting a curved line down the middle of each shell segment (which are all made of two pieces each, but that was only to make the piecing easier), starting, er, well probably not at the very smallest pieces in the middle, but I'd see what was manageable. For the top part of the shell, gentle curved lines continuing that idea, and then waves/spirals where the sea is lapping over the edge and I have those blue/beige triangles. I haven't drawn anything over the two small beige triangles at the bottom of that section, perhaps I should? I'm also trying to work out colours. Copper brown, perhaps, and then light or medium blue alternating with cream for the lapping sea bits?

Border - apart from where the sea gets into it, haven't the foggiest idea. Nor do I know what to do with those three blue triangles in the bottom right. There are three beige fabrics used for the border, by the way: one saltwash semi-plain, one paisley, and one with a design of small blue flowers.

Any ideas, guys? Modesty aside, I think I did a bloody good job on the piecing, and I don't want to let it down at the quilting stage.

Comments

Quilting Water Ripples

[virginiadear.livejournal.com]

I'd quilt the border, definitely. Part of the great visual interest of this piece is that illusion of seeing the chambered nautilus on the sandy bottom as the viewer is looking *through* the water.
My first thought about that was that I'd use a thread in the same color family as the sand, so the stitches aren't obvious, but then I thought a bit more and thought, "Perhaps they should be. The bottom, near the shore, ripples because of the action of the water, even if there aren't waves or distinct surf."
And then I thought, "What if some of those stitches in the border were in "water" hues, blue and aqua and cerulean and turquoise and teal?"

My inclination would be to continue the ripples and spirals, but my initial impulse would be to make those less dense than the body of the quilt...perhaps sort of fading out the stitching by making it less densely applied, in that way photographic or artistic vignettes are done, you know?

Not that you haven't done a fabulously successful job with your fabric color placement as well as with the piecing!

Any road, those are my two cents' worth. If your hands can take it, then I say go for it and show off your fine stitching with your quilting!

Re: Quilting Water Ripples

[lobsterdesigns]

My hands aren't wildly keen on the idea, especially since there will have to be loads of stab stitch due to all those bloody seam allowances, but if it's not due in until July, I can just do a bit at a time over a long while. It's a small piece, and it's a perfect size to take to the Knitting Society on Wednesday afternoons, much easier than lugging a baby quilt about.

Interesting that you see the shell as being on the bottom - I'd envisaged it as floating! Ideally,a quilting pattern should work for both interpretations, though that may not be possible. What colour threads would you incline towards for the shell?

One thing that strikes me about the border is that it is quite possibly where the quilting will be the most obvious, as it's relatively large unbroken areas and the fabrics aren't too busy.

For the border, how do you mean less dense? Larger-scale pattern? Less colour contrast with the thread (not that there will be huge colour contrast anywhere, it's pretty hard to get decent contrast with hand-quilting, complex piecing and medium values for the fabrics)?

I'm also trying to work out what to bind it with, assuming I go for binding at all. I was originally thinking a medium-dark blue. For instance, if you go to the left border, there's a row of triangles/strip that goes into it just over half way up, where you have three turquoise triangles on the left, two greenish triangles on the right, and a fairly subtle medium/dark blue for the rest of the strip. That fabric might work. I'm also starting to wonder about one of the greenish fabrics. Or possibly one of the darkest blues, though would that take over? I know I fretted about using the navy binding for the Isis quilt, that it would be to dark, and in the end it just gave it a nice formal frame.

Re: Quilting Water Ripples

[virginiadear.livejournal.com]

By "less dense," I was thinking fewer lines of quilting, spaced farther apart. Doesn't have to be dramatically less dense; trust your artistic judgment.

I suppose regarding the nautilus shell, I'm too literal-minded. It's a deep sea dweller. While it hunts for its food in "less deep" waters, I *believe* the only time it comes into actually shallow waters is for reproduction.
The other thing (being quite literal-minded, still) is that your nautilus is on its side, which is how we're able to recognize it, but in life the nautilus has "countershaded" shell, meaning that underneath it's lighter so that when seen from below it blends better with the lighter environment above it; and it's darker on top, so that when viewed from above it's not so apparent against the darker background of the depths beneath it. It's in the best interest of the living nautilus to stay either hidden or more or less upright (as it presumably is while on the move.) I don't know how often nautilus shells are seen in water so clear and shallow (and presumably still) that we can see the botton, but I'd assume the creature would be dying or dead, because it's on its side.
But the work is *your* artwork and can be anything you like. I'm just explaining why I've assumed the shell is on the sea bottom, but the bottom very close to a sandy beach in paddling-depth water, very clear, and with a mild, clear, sunny day to go beach combing.
H'mm...both too literal-minded and too imaginative at the same time, perhaps...?

Re: Quilting Water Ripples

[lobsterdesigns]

So my nautilus shell came out for a shag and then snuffed it? *collapses laughing*

Er, yes, I think we're going for the stylisation option here.

*returns to cackling*

Re: Quilting Water Ripples

[virginiadear.livejournal.com]

Oh; I didn't answer your other questions.

I'm useless when it comes to ideas about binding, you know.
This, "there's a row of triangles/strip that goes into it just over half way up, where you have three turquoise triangles on the left, two greenish triangles on the right, and a fairly subtle medium/dark blue for the rest of the strip. That fabric might work," I'd assumed was pieced.
It seems to me you need to ask yourself how well-defined a *frame* you want for this quilt, because binding or borders do act as a frame, visually. Do you want the quilt to allow the viewer "zero entry," as they say of swimming pools without a distinct rim or edge but where you begin by stepping into the outer edges of a puddle (in the shallow end, of course?) That allows the viewer to drift in an out.
Do you want something clearly defined, even "walled off" from the rest of the environment, something which has its own unmistakable space in your visual space or in the viewer's visual space, so that entering or leaving the view of the quilt is like entering or leaving a building with a doorman or an actual *guard?* A barrier you have to pass to 'get into' the work of art?
Or something less formidable, more like a garden gate with no lock: you have to open it in order to enter or leave the garden (it closes automatically behind you), but you can do it easily and you can just as easily leave the space that is the garden, yet you're aware of leaving; it just doesn't feel so abrupt a transition as the "walled off" experience, immediately above?

As for the threads, I think on the shell I'd look for a "low contrast" which would provide texture because of the stitching (it does make slight, subtle 'ditches'), without shrieking "Here I am! Look at me!" Not stark white, but perhaps a pale beige? A sand color?
In the water/sand area, I being the person I am, would go all or nothing: either threads which blended very closely with the colors of the fabric they're being used on, or threads which made themselves very obvious by their high contrast against the colors of the fabrics they're being used on.
Until we get to the border area, and then I'd be looking for "equal value," something as light or as dark, but not necessarily a matching *color.*
Hope that makes some sense.... This hasn't been a good weekend for e-communication, so far. ):^(

Re: Quilting Water Ripples

[lobsterdesigns]

Sorry, I was trying to direct you to a specific fabric there. It'll probably boil down to the usual approach: hold various fabrics against it until one looks right.

Let me see, what threads do I have at the moment in the relevant colours.

Off-white (cream)
Pale honey/tea tones (variegated)
A nice coppery brown
A slightly darker brown

Light variegated blue
Medium-light plain blue
Dark variegated blue
Medium-dark teal green

I think you're right about low or medium-contrast for the shell. I'll probably quilt the sea first, see how that comes along. I was thinking of alternating dark and light blue, and switching to alternating cream and copper-brown when it gets to the beach, so that wherever I'm quilting, one thread at least should show up. Not that you will ever get high contrast with this quilt, unless I started using black in the really pale bits or something.

It does have a moderately well-defined border already, it's not one of those borderless quilts. Mind you, my bedspread doesn't have a border, and I used a dark binding on that (a shade darker than planned due to mislaying the original fabric!) and it framed it beautifully. I'm honestly not sure I can answer your questions, though they're providing food for thought and I'll have plenty of time to think them over. I suspect it's something that will click once I start putting fabrics against it.