Saturday 30 June 2012

Colour My World Brown

Okay, this was the toughest month yet for the Colour My World Challenge...at least for me. Brown is not a colour I like using in my quilts. And I don't wear it. Ever. I found that focussing on just using brown though made me look closer at the different fabrics that I was using. What a rainbow of undertones! Some had a green undertone, some yellow, others orange, and even purple. Fascinating!

Even though I had grand plans of trying another technique, I ended up doing the Twelve Trees block with hand dyes. I wanted to see what it would look like with the hand dyes vs. the solid shot cottons. I added a 1/2" border on one side and then an improv asymmetrical border.
Premature finish
Quilting Detail: Leaves and bark 
I also wanted to play around with the free motion quilting to see if I could find something that would also work for my Seeing The Forest quilt. 

I did some leaves in the tree canopy, lines in the tree bark, and some grass along the ground. In the dark brown at the bottom, I did some tight landscape FMQ that we did for the FMQAYGQAL. I did random angled straight lines in the asymmetrical border.

Quilting Detail: Leaves, Grass, Landscape






I thought I'd share something I noticed about the threads. I used a mix of Aurifil, Gutterman and Mettler threads, depending on the colours I needed and what I had on hand. The Aurifil that I used for the leaves went through my machine like butter. I wish I'd used a darker shade of thread for the leaves and grass so they'd show up better against the background. Lesson learned.

It's a good thing I was just doing straight-ish lines in the bark with the Gutterman, because my machine was not liking it. It felt like I had to work harder to move the piece around. Or maybe it felt much harder because I had just had such an easy time with the Aurifil.

The Mettler was good for the landscape section. I noticed some pop-ups of the lower thread, but once I lowered the tension, they went away and it was smooth sailing from then on.

This time I pin basted and had no problems with the FMQ. I think the spray basting glue (June Tailor) that I've been using on past challenges may be from a bad batch. 

Once I finished the FMQ, I zigzagged the edge, pronounced it "good enough" and went to bed. 

When I woke up yesterday morning though, I was not happy with that asymmetrical border. Too heavy. Too asymmetrical. Too something anyway. So I chopped it in half and QAYG'ed it to the other side. Feeling much better about it now. I'm not loving the piece, but it feels more balanced.

Colour My World Brown finished piece
Now, I highly doubt that I'll ever LOVE brown, but I have a greater appreciation for it now. And who knows, maybe someday I'll use it as the neutral in a quilt.

How about you? I can't wait to see what you've done with this challenge! Easy peasy? Or did you dread the due date like I did?


July's challenge colour is pink! Easy after brown, right? I'll share some tidbits about pink this week.

Oh, and since the TGIFF! linky is still open over at Sparrow In Flight, I'm going to link up. If you get a chance, check it out and link up one of your own recent finishes.



Have a fabulous weekend and Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canucks!

10 comments:

  1. I luv this. I am going to have to try this tree block and in what other colour but brown! lol Gutterman is not a favorite with my machine and I've not done much with Aurofil. I'll have to try. I like butter!

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  2. Love the leafy quilting

    Try it with a darker thread too. I think it would look fabulous.

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  3. The tree block is a great idea for brown, love how it turned out!

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  4. It looks fabulous M-R! You rose to the challenge with this one. I don't use brown a lot, but it does appear in my quilts at times, although tans will often appear. Great job with the quilting, I try to stick to using Aurifil as much as I can, although other brands will creep in, as over the years I've gotten quite a selection, and if I need a certain colour, then that's what I use. Gee, I think I'd have more problems with pink than brown!

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  5. you did a great job on it M-R. I love they it turned out...you have a wonderful imagination...

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  6. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing about the various threads. Lately, I have been disappointed with Gutterman cotton thread : the thread had numerous little "lumps" in it and seems to be breaking easily compared to Masterpiece from Superior Threads. I will consider Auriful threads for future purchase. I am loving Superior Threads more and more as I use it, but will probably try Aurifil soon! Where do you get your Aurifil threads in Ottawa?

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  7. Gorgeous M-R! I think this is one of my favorites of yours so far!! I love your FMQ, you did a fabulous job! Happy Canada Day weekend!!

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  8. The FMQ looks fantastic, and I think the brown works with that tree block. Happy Canada Day!

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  9. Fabulous FMQ, M-R! I'm all about the Aurifil. The heartache/annoyance from the others just isn't worth it to me. Happy Canada Day!

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  10. Your FMQ is awesome M-R. Loving those leaves. :)

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