Wisteria the Second

 You may remember my first Wisteria Quilt that I made for the Crayon Challenge.  Click on the link to check it out.
I went ahead and finished this one as well.  I used a colored thread for the quilting on this one, which I think softens the whole thing.  It is a thin polyester that I picked up at my LQS.  Unfortunately the name went in the garbage with the plastic wrapping.  It was lovely to sew with, though. 

 The bobbin thread was Bottom Line by Superior Threads.  Also a lovely thread to sew with. 

 Handy dandy hanging pockets.

 This is also a 12" x 12" quilt.

Not the best picture, since I pulled it off instagram, but at least a chance to see them side by side.
 

Crayon Challenge: Wisteria: Finish!

 You guys have been watching this little quilt come along for quite a while now.

Seen various stages of the applique, and then the long process of outlining each of the petals with a stem stitch.

Well it is finally all quilted up. 

As you may remember, I was given a crayon, the name of Wisteria, and my quilt had to be mostly that color to match the crayon.  I decdided to go literal with the name and searched for images of wisteria.  I settled on this one, mostly because of its simplicity and balance.

The quilting is relatively straight match stick quilting.  Or maybe even toothpick quilting....

I had originally planned to do an overlay of lavender sparkly tulle and then quilt over it all, but the feed dogs on my walking foot shredded the tulle, so I unpicked about three lines and started over without the tulle.

The top quilting thread is the clear poly from Superior Threads.

Bobbin is Bottom Line, also from Superior. 

 If you look closely, you will see there is a thin line of green next to the binding.  I added that after all the quilting and binding to pull the bright green from the middle out to the edges.

 This is how the quilt looks ready to be turned in.  The crayon has to be attached to the front.

 And a label on the back. 

Happy to have another have to do project, done.
BTW, all these crayon challenge quilts are up for silent auction.  I always watch to see if someone buys mine, otherwise I will.  :)

Crayon Challenge: On Color and Value

 So, I haven't touched my sewing machine in nearly a week. *gasp*  There is, of course, the occasion meeting of needle and thread on the 10 year hexie project, but the sewing machine has been put away in favor of birthday and St Patrick's Day dinners at the big table.  Which is actually OK, I was quite ready to start something new instead of continuing to work on WIPs.  So now, I have a NEW WIP :)

I'm sure I mentioned before that I pulled Wisteria for my guild crayon challenge. After talking to another guild member who got Asparagus and going literal with our color, I thought it was a great idea.

I found this stencil from the never ending internet.  Apparently it is from a Japanese Family Crest.

I've had a stack of purples pulled from the stash for a while.  The background is actually the closest to the crayon color. 

The above picture is what I posted on instagram.  The colors aren't true, but it did make me notice the out of place colored petals.

I took out the "too blue" ones and ended up with this.  At this point, I knew the contrast was too sudden, but they were all fused down, so I decided to continue on and see what happened.

This is what I ended up with.  It's OK, but there are no medium values.  I was really trying to only work from stash, but alas, I had to stop at the LQS yesterday....

So what I find interesting, is that "upside down" also looks better.  I think visually the darker colors need to be moved to the bottom.

I'm also contemplating a brighter vine color.

Here are the new mediums I picked up.

I did also find a few that I had in other places around the house.

So here is my new selection.  I will have to cull it down in number, but at least its a better value range.

Now I'll have to figure out what to do with this one.  Maybe another bag....

Linking with Lee at Freshly Pieced.