Full Sails

Full Sails 

Hand dyed cottons, fused, machine quilted 49x38"

Five months and two days worth of quilting and I finally have finished this quilt.  I made this top last October for a commission, and it was rejected. I was OK with that because I liked the result, and so I got to keep the piece. But I couldn't get a feel for quilting it. I had constructed so many obstacles in my head * that prevented me from doing anything. Yet after making all these tops this month, it was so strange not to be quilting any of them. So for that quirky reason I felt it was time to tackle this piece.
I let go of all the mental obstacles and just dove in.
It took a while to get back into the rhythm of stitching and to add to the stress, I had a mean headache, and quit early Sunday afternoon.

But today I got back on the horse and finished quilting it. Sigh.

For the quilting I used a variety of different thread colors and so many areas are stop and start which it left me with zillions of ends to pull through. I chose a lightweight Asian muslin for the backing fabric, knowing I would have a snaggly mess of thread ends to deal with, so my plan is to add a lining to the piece. This is usually a total no-no for competition quilts, but since I am not competing, I think this will be the best finish.

*The obstacles? Here's what I was thinking:  Having pretty much ceased making larger art quilts, because they tend to be too expensive to sell and not entering shows anymore, there would be no place for this piece to go other than the art closet. Pretty defeated attitude, no? But I loved this top and even more so now that it's quilted. I can hang it in my studio for a while and be happy to have it.