The Ruby Oakshott quilt is finished and I thoroughly enjoyed the quilting process on this one. It was a delight to watch the fabrics move past the presser foot. I was mesmerized by the subtle color change of the fabrics as the machine moved them along.
I did some close line quilting (quarter inch spacing) to cause the fabric to bend and show the different colors of the warp and weft.
Have I mentioned how much I love this fabric? Oakshott Fabrics is a small family owned company and I want them to succeed. Here's a little video about them that you might find interesting. I don't have a deal with them but they did send me these red fabrics, seriously though, I'd tell you if they weren't good. I've actually ordered more fabric from them, (cough) twice this month.M came in the sewing room when I had the pieces for this quilt cut and piled on my sewing table and noticed the color change as he walked across the room. He snatched up a couple of pieces for closer examination and then declared, "This fabric is AWESOME!"I have to say that he has NEVER said anything like that about any of my fabrics or projects before. Now, if fabric can get a teenage boy to take notice it's got to be good.
In thinking about how to finish this quilt I decided that I wanted it to end with the edge of the piecing, that is, to have no bound edge. I finished it with a facing, like you would use in garment construction.
It took a bit of fussing to figure out how to do a facing and get the sharp looking corners that I wanted. I'm happy with the finished look.
I didn't take photos of the steps for adding the facing - now that I have figured out a process that works for me, I'll photograph it if I do it again.Here you can see the facing. I edge stitched the facing to the outer edge of the quilt so that it would more easily fold to the back. I hand stitched the inner edge of the facing to the back of the quilt.
I like the clean looking edge.
Ruby Reds
I finally put together theOakshott Ruby Red quilt top. I started with the Ruby Red pack of Oakshott shot cottons and paired them with some cool colors from my colorbox.
I made the blocks back in the summer and at the time thought they needed some sashing between them.
I chose a deep purple for sashing that was out of stock for a while.The sashing fabric arrived Monday morning but when I tried them together I didn't like that look either. It was a bit boring. Then, I tried setting the blocks turned in different directions. The interaction of the blocks made it much more interesting.
Here's the full view.
If you haven't tried any of the Oakshott shot cotton, you really should. It has a beautiful luminescent quality that just can't be captured in a photo. Believe me, I've tried.
That brings the finished quilt top number to SIX that are ready for quilting. I'd better get busy.
