What's The Point?

Isn't that a good question?!  I asked myself that several times while making this latest quilt, so it only seemed fitting it should be named 'What's The Point?'

When the idea first came to me I wondered if I could pull it off.  I had a very clear vision in the beginning, yet with each added element that vision changed and I wondered what's the point of that?  What sense does that make?  And the fact of the matter is...there isn't or wasn't a point at all.  I got to try an idea, use some creativity, and have a little bit of fun.  

There doesn't always have to be a meaning or a compelling story behind what we make, while it might be interesting, sometimes we make things because we want to make things!  Maybe our creativity is flowing, we have a stack of fabric that needs attention, you may want to try a technique or a color combination.  The point is:  Do it!  You don't need a point!

WHAT'S THE POINT
29" X 18 1/2"

I wrote a blog post when I had finished piecing the top together if you want to read more about it (SPIKES).  I was just happy to have it finished and thankful I had enough fabric to do just that!



One thing I wanted to make sure I added into each 'phase' was black and burgundy.  



Almost like the phases of a moon, I wanted the black to gradually phase into burgundy.  



The circles are 2 1/2", the lines above are 1/2" wide and the spikes ended up being about 9 1/2" high.  I trimmed several inches from the bottom after the top was finished because I cut off the right and left sides of the spikes.  



There was a quilting idea forming throughout the piecing process, yet nothing was set in stone until I actually sat down and started!

I used Aurifil 50wt thread in Black, Burgundy and Chalk.  It's quite hard to see the quilting on black fabric, and because of that I made sure to use a neutral backing that would showcase the quilting.



The circles are free motion quilting and as you can see I wasn't being precise with my circles!  Three are all black, three are all burgundy and one is a combination of both.  Around the outside I use organic circles using Chalk. 



For the spikes I kept the black and burgundy separated using match stick quilting.  Some spikes had straight lines, while a few had a slight curve.  The dense quilting accentuates some of the areas I left more open.  

I choose not to quilt the vertical black and red lines, instead relying on 1/2" horizontal lines to complete the picture.  

 

It's hard not to almost like the back more than the front!  I love the way the quilting came together.  Almost as if I meant for that to happen!  



The matchstick and organic circle quilting along with the straight lines are a match made in heaven.  Chaos meets calm.



The circles were my favorite part to quilt.  I had area constraints around each one which meant I had to not color outside the lines!  Which is what I really wanted to do.  I may make a circle quilt just so I can go wild with circular quilt one day.  



And the last piece of this puzzle was the binding.  After QuiltCon, where I saw so many faced quilts, I decided I should bind more quilts like that.  Faced binding, knife edge binding, whatever you want to call it, is so easy!  I followed this tutorial: Knife Edge Binding, by Bloomin' Workshop.  Had I not used this type of binding I would have felt the need to match the binding on the bottom and sometimes I just don't want to!  With a faced binding you don't have to!  

My playtime is with this quilt is done, but the ideas are not!  You see, there is a point to everything!  



Have you tried a faced or knife edge binding before?  If not, click on the tutorial and see what it's all about!

LINKING:

OH SCRAP! ● MAIN CRUSH MONDAY ●  MONDAY MAKING ●  LINKY TUESDAY 
LETS BEE SOCIAL ● MIDWEEK MAKERS ● NEEDLE & THREAD 

PEACOCK PARTY  ● TGIFF 

BRAG ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIES ● FINISHED OR NOT FRIDAY