Triple Sunset photo shoot

Fall colour didn't last long around here this year.  Leaves seemed to drop almost as soon as they changed colour.  I was glad to get Triple Sunset quilted and bound in time to have a photo shoot with the last of the leaves!

The wind gave us a little bit of trouble, as you can see.  It seemed to pick up every time we unfolded the quilt, without fail, but we still managed to get a few good pictures.

I love this one on the bridge, though it does look a bit like I forgot to quilt whole swaths of the quilt.  That's a bit unfortunate, considering all the hand wringing that went on in the sewing room about how I should quilt it.  I pushed through it and my favourite picture doesn't even show it!

This one is a bit better.  You see those vertical quilted lines up at the top?  There are some of those filling in all the white spaces that are not quilted with diagonal lines.  My original plan was to quilt half the quilt background in one diagonal direction, and the other half in the opposite direction. As I often do, I changed the plan partway through and ended up with the crossing diagonals.  Then I had to decide what to quilt in the rest of the background.  After opting for vertical lines, I quilted one section and hated it.

"Comparison if the thief of joy."

I don't know who first said or wrote that, but I need it on the wall in my sewing space! I had been so sure that this modern design needed very straightforward, clean lines for the quilting. After seeing some gorgeous free motion work online I started thinking about what someone else would have quilted instead and my plan didn't measure up. That is useless path to go down!

After sulking for a few days, I put the walking foot back on my sewing machine and made myself finish what I started. There wasn't any chance that I was going to pick out what I had already stitched, and there was a deadline looming, so I pushed through.

As soon as I put the last stitches in, I knew I had been right after all and I fell in love with the quilt all over again.  The quilt really did want simple lines.  The orange starbursts make me happy and they are the focus here.  The quilting is the supporting cast. Playing with varying orientations for the groups of quilted lines gave it just enough movement. The orange binding finished things off perfectly, but it would have been overwhelmed by dense, fancy quilting bedside it.

Here's a closeup of the outline quilting in and around the stars and geese.

I outline quilted in variegated orange thread inside each shape for several reasons.  It emphasizes each patch.  It brings a touch of tradition to a modern quilt, as many older hand quilted quilts feature outline quilting in patches.  It avoided some bulky spots in the seams where my ruler foot got stuck when I tried stitching in the ditch.  OK, I admit I used the first two reasons to talk myself into outlining when stitching in the ditch turned out to be a pain!  I do, however, love the end result.

It looks pretty cool on the back too.

Again, my vertical lines disappear in the photos!  All the outline quilting was done with a ruler foot and straight edge ruler quilting template. The background was quilted using my trusty walking foot.

One thing you can't see in these pictures, even in the closeup, is the fabric texture.  The top is made entirely with Moda Grunge fabrics, so there's a little bit of texture in real life.  Seeing these pictures I would say solids would be effective as well.

I almost forgot to explain where the quilt's name came from.  When I finalized the design, I asked my astronomer husband if there was a specific astronomical term for star systems composed of three stars.  Apparently it's just a plain old "triple star system". Hmph.  I googled that term to see if it would be linked to something more interesting and I found an article about a planet detected in a three star system.  The title of the article referenced a triple sunset, presumably because the three stars would be like three suns to the planet, and there would be sunset for each.  I rather liked that idea, so I borrowed it for the name of my quilt.

I'll leave you with just one more picture, just because I am enjoying these colours so much!  I'm trying to hold on to fall just a bit longer.