Sunday, June 25, 2017

Canada Day is coming up fast

There are only 6 days left before Canada Day on July 1st!  My plan was to get my sesquicentennial quilt finished by then.  Guess what I have been focusing on this week? I am making progress, but I predict some late night hand sewing to get the binding stitched down on Friday night!

Here's what I have done so far.

 


I stitched in the ditch around the large leaf, the sides of the leaf strips, and the border. Next I quilted concentric circles in the background.  If you're curious about how I kept the circle consistent where it ducks under the leaf and where it pops up again, I used the same technique as when I quilted my red and green Sparkling Trail.  I described my method in a post here.

Next I quilted "150" and "1867-2017" in the large leaf. I printed the text out in the font and size I wanted, traced it onto tissue paper, pinned the paper to the quilt, quilted the outline through the paper then tore away the paper.






I'm still not sure about this.  It didn't photograph well, and the dates are a bit more visible than the photo suggests. I used a matching thread because I wanted things to be subtle, and because I lacked confidence in my free motion skills.  Matching thread is very forgiving of wobbles and uneven stitch length.   My stitching looks good in just the right light, but at other angles it disappears altogether, so I may go back and stitch it again in contrasting thread.  Then again, I did want subtle!  Maybe I should have used a larger font...The scale seems a little off, but I really don't want to pick out all the straight line stitching I did next!



I still need to quilt something around and/or in all the cream colored leaves and in the border.  At that point I may reassess the large leaf.  As I look at these pictures, I am becoming more convinced that I need to make the 150 and the dates larger...

Perhaps the best course of action is to finish as I have started, bind the quilt, enjoy Canada Day and reassess later!

I still plan to have a linky party for Canada Day so you can all link up any Canada Day related projects.  If you don't have a blog, send me a picture, or links to other social media where you are sharing and I can add those to the July 1st post.

Finally, if you want this "150" pattern, please note that it is available free through July 1st at www.payhip.com/CanuckQuilterDesigns.  After that date it will be available for purchase, on the same site.

11 comments:

  1. No, No, No!! Leave it like it is! It is beautiful! Bind it, and show it proudly! ---"Love"

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  2. Beautiful! I think the 150 looks great but you have to be comfortable with your quilt. If it bugs you now, it will always bug you. Do what will make you happy! The quilting looks so nice, love the circles.

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  3. what a spectacular quilt and loving the spiral quilting

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  4. I love it as is, but you have to love it. I think the plan to finish, enjoy, and reassess is a good one. Maybe it will grow on you. : )

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  5. It looks lovely and you know what it means. If the stitching shows up in real life then that's what matters...

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  6. It's looking really good Joanne. I always like how you quilt your projects. It really adds to the overall look.

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  7. It is looking good!! Could you do hyper quilting like Patsy Thompson so you wouldn't have to rip anything?

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  8. I like the 150 and the dates too. I left a small area in my big leaf to do something similar but so far it is bare. I need to take some pictures of my finished quilt so I can join in the linky fun. Thank you so much for designing such a beautiful tribute to our 150th anniversary of confederation.

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  9. I love it just the way it is. I think your idea of finishing it up and see how it looks once it is all done, and then, later if you want to enlarge the dates, you can do it. There's no time to worry yourself about it now. Good luck!

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  10. Hi Joanne, I like the 150 the way it is. Hopefully you'll see how it looks once it's done. Please feel free to link up your post to http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.ca/2017/06/celebrate-fetons-150-in-june.html
    Things have been pretty quiet on the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 front :-) See you on your July 1st link-up!

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