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Thursday, July 23, 2015

The Optical Illusion Quilt is Finished

The quilt I made from the book Optical Illusions, by Kansas City Star Quilts, is completed, and ready for gifting at the wedding in a week's time.


Here is the quilt Blurred Vision in all its glory in the late summer afternoon sun. DS1 is the quilt holder this time. The lilacs gives a nice backdrop to the quilt in the photo session.

The quilt is designed by Penny Layman. Its dimensions is 64" x 80" before the wash and dry cycle. This is my first two-colored quilt, ever. I used solids in teal and light aqua.


The quilt is constructed with 4 1/2" squares offset a little bit from each other, creating a "dizzy" feeling. This type of optical illusion grabs your attention because of its simplicity, boldness and effectiveness.


Although all the rows are the same width from one edge to the other, they appear to be smaller on one edge and larger on the other edge. The quilting design adds to this effect, it is done in wedges; they follow the width of the quilt in each horizontal row to accent the illusion that the rows are narrower on one end than the other.


A detailed picture of the quilting after wash shows this effect. I did all the quilting freehand on my domestic sewing machine with a small throat space. One row is filled with wavy lines widely spaced, and the other is filled with wavy lines with a higher frequency. After washing and drying the quilt gets a crinkled and cozy look.


The quilt back was pieced together with the main fabric being Britten Nummer by Ikea. The bride and groom will be able to keep count of the years they have been married by looking at the back. I added a few teal/blue fabrics to get the backing wide enough, and put in the pieced initials of the happy couple with a cute pink heart in between.


I added a hand embroidered label with the name of the bride and groom, in addition to the wedding date, August 1st.

It is easy to see the quilting on the back side of the quilt.


The newly weds will enjoy cuddling under their new quilt for years to come!


This is my ALYoF goal for July, and also my second goal for the 2015 Finish Along for Q3.



2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

Linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday and TGIFF.

7 comments:

  1. Det enkle er ofte det beste. Flott teppe!

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  2. I love the idea of putting the couples initials on the back! You did a great job. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. this certainly gives the impression of movement with the blocks offset, a lovely quilt for a bride and groom

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  4. Gorgeous quilt. They will love it. I really like your backing.

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  5. That is a great quilt. I love the way you quilted it, and the initials on the back make it really special.

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  6. Nice job on the color and right pattern to use them with! Sometimes it is amazing to see what an effect a simple pattern can make isn't it!

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  7. Lovely quilt and a very clever design for the backing too!
    "Visiting as a member of the official 2015 Finish-Along cheerleading squad."

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