Saturday, October 13, 2018

Is this Magnitudes?

Do you ever take a pattern and not only choose different fabrics than what the designer used but also completely re-imagine contrast and blending?  An alternate version of Magnitudes has been bouncing around in my head for several months and I finally caved and set everything else aside.

Milky Way from pattern Magnitudes by Canuck Quilter Designs
Milky Way from Magnitudes pattern by Canuck Quilter Designs 2018

I really love blue and white quilts.  I can't believe I haven't made one since Clear Skies in 2013. It was time!

Milky Way from Magnitudes pattern by  Canuck Quilter Designs 2018.

I named this one Milky Way, but it is made from the Magnitudes pattern. In Magnitudes the stars are a solid color on a scrappy colour background, but I flipped that around here.  The stars are the pop of colour instead.  By matching the block background to the sashing and borders, I made all the stars float. 


This quilt top was made entirely from contents of my scrap bins.  In addition to cutting instructions that tell you how many strips to cut and sub-cut when you are using yardage, the pattern includes a table that summarizes size and number for each piece in the quilt. You can dip into your scraps, even odd shaped and small pieces, and just keep digging and cutting until you have the right number of pieces. Even the white background is made up of various white-on-white print scraps.  I think it adds interest to all that white background space. This photo of the quilt in progress shows that best.

Scrappy white-on-white background
Scrappy white-on-white background

Quilting the quilt was a bit of an adventure. My original plan was to freemotion loose hooked swirls all over the background.  Stop.  Nothing else.  It was supposed to be quick and easy, but by the time I had quilted half the swirls that are in the finished quilt, I knew I was having trouble with loose and open.  My swirls were tight and dense and I thought they looked too busy to cover the whole background.  I went to bed, slept , and came back with a different plan.  I extended the swirls across the rest of the width, like a path, and switched to my trusty walking foot to do all the straight line quilting.  I was tempted to add some freemotion ruler work circles in the border, but decided that would be too fussy and distract from the swirls and the planned scallops.  I settled for using the rulers to make quicker work of the piano key quilting.


This is the baby size, but I doubled the width of the border to give me enough width to cut a scalloped edge.  A coworker told me I was a glutton for punishment when I told her I planned to scallop the borders, but in the end it was not as frightening as I feared.  I admit I took several deep breaths before I wielded the scissors on a perfectly good, almost finished quilted quilt!

Scalloping a quilt border
No turning back! Scalloping the edge.
I used Darlene Zimmerman's excellent instructions from her book The Quilter's Edge. I think the key was her tip to draw the scallop, sew on the drawn line, and not cut along the scallop until after the binding is sewn to the front of the quilt.  Also, use single fold bias binding.  The bias helps when going around the curves and the single fold minimizes bulk in the Vs between scallops.

Before I sign off I have to share the back!  I swear I wasn't thinking about the scallops at all when I pieced the back.  I had orphan blocks from two or three years ago that were the right colour and size to add the needed extra width to my length of backing fabric. Aren't they a perfect fit?

Orphan blocks on the back of Milky Way

May I say I love, love, love this finish?

Linking up with 
DrEAMi at mmm!Quilts 

24 comments:

  1. I love it too! It's hard to believe you did those beautiful stars from scraps! Your quilting is just fantastic too! You always do such beautiful work. ---"Love"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Very different indeed, but also very striking. (Hi Rosie!) I love the very different quilting motifs you've used - they look great together, and I agree that it would have been too much with swirls all over.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The alternate color plan is beautiful and the quilting is genius!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love this! The colors, how you quilted it, the scalloped edge and the back. Perfect! I like the happy accident of your quilting - it's a great combo. Excellent!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stunning!!! What a difference to the original. I love a scalloped edge and the pieced backing worked out so well. There seem to be a lot of pieced backings lately. I’m thinking of making some for my quilts. Lots of inspiration here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a lovely quilt, beautiful colors. I love your quilting on your milky way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the scallops and I think the quilting is perfect for this quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is gorgeous! ! ! Love the scallops and the beautiful blue and white fabrics. It is so different from the original pattern and it is amazing! Love the orphan blocks, too, they are perfect on the back.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this so much I had to go out and get Magnitudes immediately! Truly beautiful, especially with the orphan blocks on the back!

    ReplyDelete
  10. You definitely deserve to say you love, love, love this finish. :) It is gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  11. May I say that I love, love, love this finish, too??? It's just too perfect!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh it is just so very lovely, and the scallops were the perfect finish. I totally get that trepidation on the scissors part! I need to do them again, did them on a runner and on a throw but that's it. I do hope you'll link this up (see, I'm reminding you again!) with DrEAMi! the last Saturday of October. I love how you quilted it too, just like a puff of the North wind blowing across the quilt! (still not fixed the comment problem, still a noreply on blogger blogs with embedded comment boxes, so don't hit reply but use my email ephdra at gmail dot com Thx!

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's beautiful, Joanne! I love how clear and pure the blues are! And your scalloped binding turned out great. Congrats on a wonderful finish :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is stunning. I love both sides. I have never tried a scalloped border and of course, now I want to. You are very inspirational.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh... I just love how this turned out. The backing is perfect and the quilting on the front is wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  16. To answer your question-yes. Patterns are merely a suggestion. Anything blue and white is a winner in my book. Your quilting is amazing. The two patterns together look planned. The scalloped edge is the perfect finishing touch.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What an incredible difference! The color reversal makes it difficult to believe that it's the same pattern. The original is playful, but this version is simply stunning!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Gorgeous!!! Love all the shades of blue and all the whites make the background so rich and interesting. The quilting, the scallop edges and the blue binding are just perfect. Love love love the pieced backing :-)

    ReplyDelete
  19. May I also say... I love this finish! The quilting is absolutely inspired!

    ReplyDelete
  20. This quilt is GORGEOUS! I love the use of scrappy fabrics in a quilt, and this one is perfect in my eyes. I love how you made the quilt back as well. Very inspirational!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting. I truly appreciate your comments and will try to reply to comments by email if your commenting staus is not set to "no-reply".

If you have a question, emailing me directly at joanne@canuckquilter.com will ensure I have your address to respond. I promise I will not share your email address and I will not use it for any purpose other than replying to your message.