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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Phantom Triangle Quilt

This was one of those quilts where it was just fun to make!  I needed to use some scraps that I had cut in various sizes (3" and 4"), they were bugging me...sitting all stacked neatly, but never being used.  Instead of my usual half square triangles, I thought go organic!

28 1/2" x 38 1/2"
I started with 3 1/2" grey squares.  The colored squares I would cut in half for the most part and eyeball where I wanted them to go.  I intended it to be 'rough', perfection wasn't in my mind at all. After I used the largest color squares, I grabbed the small ones hoping to make the triangles graduate in size from the bottom.  Larger...smaller.  After sewing the colors, I trimmed and squared the squares to 3 1/4".

You may notice that there are two different grey tones.  Totally intentional.  The grey with the triangles is Kona Ash and the opposite side is Kona Shadow.  



I thought about using the same square blocks (3 1/4") for the opposite side in Kona Shadow, but decided it would be much easier and faster to make strips.

The back never ceases to amaze me on a quilt top!  Do you ever get mesmerized by that?


Once the top was pieced, I knew right away that I would free motion quilt it.  First of all it was small, so I knew I could handle it.  When the idea of making phantom triangles came to me, I was both excited and scared to death!  It could go very wrong!

I started by marking random phantom triangles and began the long and rewarding (really) process of FMQ.  I had pebbles and colors in mind!  


I ended up using 25 colors throughout the quilting process.  That meant a lot of thread changes!  Yes, I didn't make perfect pebbles, but I sure had fun trying!  



Because I used the colors for one side, the other side with the triangles (the real triangles, not the phantom ones), I went with just grey thread.  This part went much quicker because there were no color changes!  Boy, what was I thinking?  And why so dense?!


Maybe it was meant to be?!  Because I love it!  I told my husband before I started quilting that I was going big!  And I'm so happy I did!


I'll tell ya, after all the bobbin and thread changes, I was so over it!  Changing colors is just 
not fun.  


But it was so worth it!  When I decided to stay with a neutral grey for the opposite side, everything went faster.  By the time I was done my shoulders were telling me I over did it!  I couldn't stop once I started.  I had to finish it all!!


What would I do differently if I were to make another one?  I think I would make the phantom triangles in colors, but use a neutral for the pebbles.  Maybe.  

I was really feeling this one!  The free motion quilting grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go! I want to do more...so much more...and not just pebbles!    

LINKING:

35 comments:

  1. You made a gorgeous quilt, Jayne! Love the phantom triangles, and the colored pebbles are so worth it!

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    1. The phantom triangles came together just as I had hoped they would! I was hoping the color changes were worth it…and they were!

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  2. Terrific idea, super execution! Quilt on!

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  3. The spontaneity really shows in both your piecing and quilting. It's a happy quilt to look at, and I can hear how pleased you are with you. I say, Excellent Job, Jayne!

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  4. Another great quilt Jayne! The phantom triangles are a great idea.

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  5. Jayne what a great idea for quilting the phantom triangles! I know changing all the thread colors was a pain but it was worth it! Great job!

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  6. This is really cool and the best kind of quilt - your own idea and just going for it! Thanks for showing close ups! I love what you did with the quilt - the mirror effect of the triangles and all. Really creative - and yes, totally worth all the 'extra'.

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  7. Hope you don't mind I just shared on my AQT fb page...

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  8. It was definitely worth it! Beautiful.

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  9. Very clever: I like this way of using up scraps and all the design decisions you made along the way come together to make this a really cool quilt.

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  10. Pebbles take a long time to quilt, and I definitely admire your stick-to-it-ness on changing out the thread so often. How about going with a neutral bobbin but just changing thread on the top if you revist this idea sometime?

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  11. I hope to respond to everyones comments...as soon as I figure out why I'm not getting notifications! ARGH!

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  12. Love everything about this quilt! Especially the two tone background and the ghost triangles. Good for you sticking with it on all those pebbles, Jayne. Great design!

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  13. Oh this is terrific! In my opinion your pebbles ARE perfect because in nature pebbles aren't perfect circles. I can imagine how exhausting the thread changes were - and you changed the bobbin with each color? Wow! Well, it's over now...fantastic finish!

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  14. You are so creative! I like the two colored background - you gave me an idea for some fabric I came across.

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  15. I love this - it has turned out wonderfully! Thought I certainly wouldn't have wanted all those colour changes!

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  16. I love everything you did with this quilt. The background colors and corner colors, and the quilting! It's all so fun and interesting to look at.

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  17. You impressed me yet again! I do know it is lots of work to change colors all the time, but the effect was so cool!! You rock girl;-)

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  18. LOVE how this turned out! And pebbles shouldn't be perfect. Show me pebbles in the wild that are perfectly round and contain no nicks or dents. Nope, not gonna happen :) I think your 5th picture from the top is my favorite. It really shows off all that quilty texture.

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  19. What a wonderful finish! You mention that's it's a small quilt - what size did it end up being? Thank you for sharing. I like the idea of saving time and using strips - but then quilting to get the look of the squares. Sweet.

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    1. Ah I missed the caption - 28 1/2" x 38 1/2" I see it now. Thanks!

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  20. This is fantastic! Great idea with the quilting! I imagine it was painful going through it though as you said. But worth it in the end!

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  21. Ooh, what a lot of work, but so worth it. That's the neat thing about little quilts: you can go all out. You sure have jumped in with the FMQ. And, hey, I'd like to see version 2. Go ahead. It's small.

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  22. What a amazing quilt! Perfectly quilting!

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  23. You are such a show-off. Not only you must do original work, you must also do it so well!!! So jealous.
    Seriously GF, you are getting dagger-eyes from me for overshadowing every one else. By the way, I would not want you any other way :-)
    Hugs,
    Preeti.
    http://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com

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  24. Everytime I read your blog, I am blown away by your creativity! What a fabulous quilt with some very effective (not to mention, patient) quilting.

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  25. I love the phantom quilting... it really brings the two sides of the quilt top together. I tend to chicken out when it comes to using coloured thread. Gotta get over that!

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  26. Wow! This is a fabulous quilt! The sheer volume of FMQ is impressive. All those pebbles! Well done!

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  27. Wow! This is a fabulous quilt! The sheer volume of FMQ is impressive. All those pebbles! Well done!

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  28. LOVE everything about this quilt!!!

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  29. Congrats with this great finish. Amazing!! I love it.

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  30. It's cool, I like it. But I might have some OCD problem those misplaced triangles are catching up all my attention :)

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  31. What a fabulous design...the quilting adds such a fun detail to your overall design!! Thank you for sharing!!

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