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.

Linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday and TGIFF.

Colorful inspiraton + progress

Lately, working on the Blurred Vision quilt and the set of Swoon pillows, there has not been an abundance of colors here on the blog. There has mainly been teal and aqua around. Since this is July with plenty of flowers in bloom, I feel I have to incorporate more brightness into my blog.

Firstly, I stumbled onto this gorgeous piece of fiber art at my local hospital:

It is an amazing piece, a wall hanging that seems to consist of wool threads in different colors glued (or fastened, somehow) onto a background fabric. The wall hanging was behind a reception desk, so I was not able to check it out in more detail. Maybe this will be the inspiration to a new quilt?

I just had to include the two last pictures; two flower arrangements I spotted outside an office building.

The summer flowers show off so nicely against the grey slate on the ground, these are the real colors of summer!

Then it is back to my two-colored world; DS2 helped me basting this quilt on a big conference table at work this weekend. I have just started quilting the Blurred Vision quilt; more details to follow...

ALYoF 2015 Goal for July

During May/June I have been working hard on the wedding gifts for my nephew and his bride to be. The pillow set is done, and the Optical Illusion quilt top is finished.

Yesterday I finished piecing the backing for this quilt, and late last night I embroidered the label to put on the back.

My goal for July is to baste, quilt and bind this quilt. The wedding is the first of August, so I am in a bit of a hurry!

Linked up to ALYoF July Goal Post over at Sew BitterSweet Designs and Needle and Thread Thursday

Blurred Vision Top Done!

My Blurred Vision quilt top is done, and here it is flying in the wind, only held firmly down by DS2. I like the dramatic effect of this picture with the never-ending (seems like) hot wind outside in the yard.

The quilt is designed by Penny Layman, and is from the book Optical Illusions by Kansas City Star Quilts.

Here is the top spread out over the sewing room floor. The wind in the previous picture is to be blamed for the wrinkles in the quilt top.

 I didn't actually measure the top at this stage, but it is supposed to be 64" x 80" finished. It will be perfect for a wedding gift in August.

Here is a picture of the assembly process; basically two different rows that were put together in sections. The little offset between the rows creates an interesting effect.

This is my first two-colored quilt, and I chose to use a solid teal and a light aqua as the two fabrics. It is a modern quilt, for sure, and the quilting will add an interesting touch to it. But I won't be able to do it until later this summer when I return home from my vacation.

I plan to use Britten Nummer from Ikea for most of the backing, with some interesting details in addition. I just hope that I have enough of that fabric in my stash, because I heard rumors that Ikea is stopping to make that one! I checked my local Ikea on the web, and they seem to have it, still. Fingers crossed!

I just felt that there was just too few colors in this blog post, so I had to include some beautiful flowers from my garden.

Linked up to Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday and WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.