"...men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."
- Charles Dickens from A Christmas Carol
- Charles Dickens from A Christmas Carol
Hooray! CCII is done and dusted. And yes, I lifted that phrase straight from Kaja. Alliteration somehow sounds even more complete; every i dotted, every t crossed. Spic and span. Hmm. Could this be the reason comic book characters have alliterative names? Pepper Potts, Peter Parker, Lois Lane, Beetle Bailey. But I digress.
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| Chinese Coins II quilt |
The pennants on the border are free motion echo quilted. Not perfect but I'm pleased with the result and it was much easier than turning the quilt while using a walking foot. After a few, I developed a rhythm - a bit slower is better. If I can just remember it.
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| Free motion echo quilting |
Here's a view of the quilted borders. The purple diamonds have an orange peel design with a central eyes. The pastel triangles on either side are simple waves in matching threads. The pennants have a serendipitous V design; I simply didn't want to repeatedly stitch-in-the-ditch in order to move from one echo to the next. And the white background is a basic feather.
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| Free motion echo and feather quilting |
Why did I worry about using different threads? Here's the same area I took a photo of previously. Thread is barely visible. {Again, I point out my blog's name - Fret Not Yourself - as a personal reminder to stop the handwringing.}
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| View of the back and binding of Chinese Coins II |
Another area of the back looks like this. I see some parallel quilting lines but only the merest hints of anything else.
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| Another view of the back and binding of Chinese Coins II |
These loops are fast becoming a favorite. Libby Lehman used to say everyone has a signature quilting design, something that comes easy to them. Hers was random loops. I used to think mine was spirals but this ribbon of loops are also moving up in my ranking. {I'll also point out we can learn new styles. Baptist Fans used to be disastrous but mine look fairly good these days.}
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| Loop quilting in the sashing of Chinese Coin II quilt |
The loops, feathers, and echo quilting also appeared in my Spiderweb quilt... in corresponding places. Do I now have a personally identifiable style?
The binding is a bright blue bandana print. I wouldn't have chosen it from my stash but found it in the binding bin and think it's a perfect edge. Almost enough for the entire quilt.
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| Chinese Coin II quilt binding, quilting, backing |
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| Scrappy back of Chinese Coins II quilt |
Everyone needs deadlines. - Walt Disney
Truer word were never spoken. The deadline that kicked me into gear? Not New Year's resolutions. Next month I'm demonstrating Chinese Coins to my quilt guild. Ever since I agreed to present I've been wondering what I have to show. Most of my Coin quilts are given away. Examples on hand would help. How's that for a motive?
1. Collecting Coins
2. Arranging Coins
3. Revisiting Chinese Coins II
4. Sashing Chinese Coins II
5. Sashing Sewn
6. Retrospective to Date
7. Inner Border
8. Starting the Outer Border
9. Working on the Outer Border
10. Outer Border Choices
11. Outer Border Sewn
12. Quilting in progress
Wow. So many posts. I'd forgotten how long I've been working on the quilt. Some come together quickly, some slowly, and some are as slow as molasses in January... like this one. But it's worth the wait. I quite like it; warts and all. It's headed to a wonderful home after the demo.
Quilt Details
Size: 84"" x 78"
Design: Chinese Coins
Batting: Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon100% cotton
Thread: blue Aurifil Mako 50/2 cotton , YLI nylon monofilament, pink and purple Metler fine embroidery cotton, green Superior cotton, white Guterman cotton
Quilting: walking foot SID; freemotion lines, loops, spirals, stars and feathers
The Movie That Almost Got Away
Somehow we missed The Man Who Invented Christmas {check the trailers and snippets on this site} in December but fortunately found it at the dollar shows in north Dallas. We all went for a belated Christmas treat. And what a treat it was! Beautifully staged, costumed, and acted. DIL noticed Dan Stevens, her hero from Beauty and the Beast, played Charles Dickens. I noticed Christopher Plummer, my hero from Sound of Music, played Scrooge. Bharat Nalluri directed this film as well as another of my favorites, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I'm buying a copy as soon as one becomes available.
Enjoy the day, Ann
40 comments:
Beautiful finish. Thanks for sharing your quilting process, always interesting to me as I struggle to find compatible quilting motifs.
Beautiful quilting on a lovely finish! I like that bandana binding, too--great choice. And those stars really add just the right sparkle to the coin runs...great work hugs, Julierose
I love that pink/white bicycle fabric in your quilt!
This quilt is so much more than coins. The bright colors and pennant border remind me of a carnival. Congrats on this special finish.
Your sweet quilt turned out so nice. I enjoyed the close-up pictures so I could see the individual fabrics better. There are some pretty eclectic prints in there. I bet it was fun to make. I had a presentation in October that motivated me to finish up some things. Deadlines are good and bad. We saw the 'Man Who Invented Christmas' during the Christmas season. It was a delight. I haven't heard of the other one, I'm going to go look it up.
Thanks for writing. I think most of us who do our own quilting have difficulties deciding on a choice. It's only part of quiltmaking and a few weeks off does things to my confidence and abilities each and every time.
LOVELY lovely and lovely. Congratulations on the finish!!
Thanks, Julie. I'm so glad to have this one finished. It wasn't that hard but I dawdled and worried about it for a year. I like those stars, too, and was so lucky to have the bandana binding ready to go in the binding bin. Yay.
I had quite a collection of bicycle prints. They are such fun, aren't they?
When I invited everyone to try Chinese Coins as an improvisational quilting idea last year I included as many ideas as I could think of. This is one that uses the Coins as a small portion of the quilt. One of my themes is that the blocks don't have to be the center of attention. Sometimes they work very well as part of the background.
I'm glad you like it, too. Those pennants make it very happy.
Thanks for the compliment, Robin. I do like using unusual (or loud) fabrics; quilt making is more enjoyable for me. I'd love to hear more about your presentation. How did it go? Would you do it again?
I'm glad you saw the movie. I thought it was fantastic. Miss Pettigrew has been a favorite of mine for several years. I read it was first optioned for film in the 1940s. I wonder why it took so long to make.
Thanks, Julie. It's so nice to have it done.
Ah, a festival for the eyes. I loved zooming in and out to see the overall look and then the details in the fabric and quilting. I appreciate so much how quilters choose their quilt thread colors, but I have to say that with so much of my own work it doesn’t seem to make much difference, so now I often fall back on just off-white, which is a bit more friendly to my wallet. I love your finish—and your “style” whatever it might be.
What a pretty and colorful finish. The pendant border really frames it nicely. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!
I never would think of this as a Chinese Coins if I had seen the final product and not followed your process. When you started the Chinese Coins challenge I thought of them as just long columns of fabric strips sometimes sashed. I've been educated! Fabulous finish!
This is absolutely gorgeous! I love how the borders carry out those star points, and give such a festival air to the whole quilt. I've been thinking about Chinese Coins since you first started talking about them, but haven't started anything yet. I expect one of these days I'll just start sewing bits together and have one in progress before I know what hit me!
You have taken 'chinese coins' to a whole new level with this quilt! Lots happening, I really love the borders, the colours, and all your quilting details!
How kind of you, Janine Marie. I do like using patterned fabrics. Varying the thread choice doesn't make much difference on this quilt. Most of the time I use a single color and am coming to like grey best. But I'm trying to clear out my thread bin, too. I like your idea of white thread, the color of most historical quilts.
Thanks, Cynthia.
Who'd have thought Chinese Coins could end up like this? It's a fantastic iteration of your basic starting point and I love it.
Love how you sneaked the stars into the CCII quilt. Your improv work in the borders is totally awesome!!!
OMG, I love "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day". I have that DVD and watch it at least a couple of times every year.
Congrats on getting it finished! Such a fun quilt.
That's the traditional definition of Chinese Coins and the one I used for years to make donation quilts. But once I thought about it improvisationally, I decided anything with a set of Coins could qualify. A very liberal definition that adds lots of possibilities. It's been an education for me, too.
Thanks for writing, Gayle. They are a great way to use up scraps. In fact, they were my go-to donation quilt for years. I like borders so love to find ways to add them to almost every quilt.
I hope to see some you've made. It does keep the scrap bag at bay.
How kind of you, Linda. It is a busy quilt but I enjoyed adding all the details. I do like borders.
Thanks, Kaja. I'm enjoying pushing the boundary of a traditional design. But I think your Wall is my favorite "Coin" variation.
Wow! No one has ever known about Miss Pettigrew before. I watch it at least once a year. We'll have to schedule a time to watch "together" at our own homes. Ha.
Isn't it great to get quilts finished while we're still interested in them. No UFOs is my battle cry.
Inspiring quilt!!
Thanks, Mary
Thank you for sharing all the process and parts. It helps to understand and appreciate a quilt. I love how much is going on and how much color there is. Thanks!
Fantastic finish with CC2 Ann! Your idea of putting those gorgeous stars in there was inspired, the border couldn't be more perfect!
Pretty finish! Love the stars in the sashing and the border is incredible!
This is a really fun design. I really like the triangle border. The quilt has such a bohemian and fun look.
How kind of you to write here, too, Linda. There was too much to write on both blogs but I wanted to credit Sujata's book. Plus that site hasn't had much on it for a while.
Thanks, Maureen. I always enjoy borders and these were lots of fun. Colorful and relatively easy.
Thanks, Dawn. Those stars turned out better than I expected. The border uses ideas from Sujata Shah's book Cultural Fusion Quilts.
Thanks. The borders were a treat. Bohemian is so much nicer than funky. That's how I described it previously but I'm going to use your term in future. Ha!
I don't know how I missed this post but your finished Chinese coins is stunning! And the quilting looks great! cheers!
Wonderful quilt. Thanks for sharing as you made it. I hadn't heard of the movie - sounds fun.
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