TGIFF! - Heathia

Happy Friday/almost Friday everyone and welcome to TGIFF!, where we share and celebrate our quilty finishes.

I'm definitely doing the happy dance with my Heathia finish this week.

This wallhanging was started in a workshop with Heather Lair this summer. We looked at the fabulous work of Sonia Delaunay, a Russian-French artist and designer, who inspired some of Heather's art. As my piece really combines both of their influences, I decided to call it Heathia. :)

When I shared this with you a couple of weeks ago, it was at this stage:

Top Before Borders

To finish it, I laid it on a larger piece muslin to give it a border effect. Then I quilted it within a 1/4" of it's life with my walking foot. Heather showed us a way to add another layer of design with this style of quilting - love, love, love. I used Aurifil (28 wt. light blue-grey - 2612) that Alex Veronelli of Aurifil generously sent me in the spring. I've been looking for a project to play with some of those threads and I knew this one was going to be perfect.

Quilting Detail

Quilting Detail

I know I've said it before, but I love Aurifil thread! I quilted just over half of this piece with one bobbin. I kept checking the bobbin because I was sure that I was running low, but nope. It's nice and thin so the bobbin holds a lot more than some of the other threads I've used and there's very little lint. I really like how fine the thread looks on this piece too -- no knobbies (is that even a word?).

I loved doing the quilting this way; it adds great texture to the quilt. When I got bored doing lines in one direction, I'd just switch it up and start going in another. I think the 1/4" spacing between quilting lines gives enough continuity so that you can switch directions or shapes easily. Does that make sense? I also added in one circle of red orange thread for a bit of pop in the quilting.

Check out the back:

Heathia - Back

I faced it in blue (using this tutorial by Susan Brubaker-Knapp) because I thought that the blue facing would add a little pop of colour from the side. I'm wondering a bit if I shouldn't have used the muslin though.

Heathia - Front

Quiltography: "Heathia," by Michèle-Renée Charbonneau, Ottawa, 20" by 28", 2012.

Thank you so much, Heather, for teaching me how to do this. I definitely see more of this style of work in my future.