Radiance - A Finish

I didn't plan to finish this quilt in the orange month for the RSC2017 at soscrappy, but how fitting! (It's not made from scraps though, but I'm still linking up there because it's so orange! I also never thought I'd get my OMG done within the first week of the month. It may be because there is another OMG behind the scenes for this month which will be revealed in a couple of weeks, so I had to be crack-a-lackin' as a certain precious grandson said about something after we picked them up at the airport! Yup, Brady is in the house, as I like to say when he comes, mind you this time, it's more Brady is in the D, as we are spending a few days in Detroit and area before going back to our side of the river.

The original post for making this my OMG is here. Thank you to Patty of Elm Street Quilts for hosting this year.

I took Radiance to Seacliff Beach in Leamington early one morning a couple of days ago. It couldn't have been more perfect: no wind, almost unheard-of in this Great Lakes area, beautiful blue skies, calm waters and almost no peeps.

It was like they knew I was coming! They had this temporary fencing you see in the photo up along one section of the beach beside the stage/pavilion area where they were working, and as I had brought along several clothes pegs and the skirt hangers (had 3, no clue where the third one is hiding) I beetled right over and set to work for the first shot.

I quilted different designs in each of the oranges and the white Grunge.

I figured I would take an angled shot to capture some of the quilting texture while it was pegged onto that fence. The light that morning on these fabrics takes my breath away; it shows the oranges to perfection, rich colours that they are.

I hauled it over to the beach volleyball courts for another fun shot:

This is Yvonne's, Quilting Jet Girl, Triangle Transparency pattern. I made it a year and a half ago, and knew it wasn't quit big enough for Aidan, my nephew, who is tall.  I didn't know how to add to it at the time, so it sat, folded up, waiting for inspiration.....which came when my friend Judy of Quilt Paradigm told me of this really cool migrating geese (tutorial here) she was doing on a quilt. I made a Mariner's Compass quilt flag as one of my Henry Glass Design Challenge projects, and used it there. Loved it.  Thought, hmm, I think this might work to extend Aidan's quilt! And it sure did, by a little over 12" in length.

Even a brown gull paddled along in the background for added interest!

A picnic table provided another fun shot, and the low angle of the sun at this early hour was perfect to show off some of the quilting texture. The quilt is unwashed here.

Here is the back:

I found the Be A Man print at Alma Sue's in Florida and thought it would be very cool for Aidan, another tool-loving MacGyver man like my own. 😉 I just got a couple of yards because I do like an interesting backing. I used a little of MacGyver's Gears fabric from his wallhanging I made a few years ago. The blue is more of the Moda Essentials that I used in Brady's Fractured Pieces. Part of me wishes I'd used the navy across the entire back to show that quilting!

I did dot to dot in the migrating geese borders and wavy lines behind them. Who knew it would give them such motion? Previously I'd done swirls behind them, but I did swirls in the outermost border of the transparency blocks.

I did some ghost geese with dot to dot inside them where the second last border of each block 'met'. You can see in the photo below how it accentuated the squares effect. 

In the very centre of the quilt I did some rays and elongated figure eights, and back and forth lines which ended up creating quite a cool octagon shape.

I kind of winged it, ha, pun not originally intended, on the quilting motifs once the quilt was loaded and I'd started quilting. I knew I wanted distinction between the three shades of orange. Below are my favourite designs I did in the first four rows of medium orange. That scroll-type question mark shape with the feathers on the side I will definitely use again, as I will that diamond straight lines that overlap at the points to create a cool cross-hatching look.

I hadn't originally planned a flanged border, but I knew it would be terrific. I'd bought a grey Mode Grunge and a purple one, but thought the grey worked better with the back and was a little more masculine. For the flange I used the medium orange, Moda's 'Concrete: Rock Solid'.

Even though I cut the backing and batting 3/8" beyond the points of the migrating geese, it still shaves off a bit, although they are perfect beneath that flange if you lift it up! The above shot shows the Kona Cheddar round where I did ghost diamonds with alternating dot to dot designs and flowing designs, all from Angela Walter's Shape By Shape Collection 2 book. The Rock Solid medium orange border got back and forth lines, and the deep orange Grunge centre, or white Grunge in alternating blocks, got more dot to dot designs.

I used warm 'n natural batting and the quilt is nice and soft despite the relatively intense quilting.

Of course I put some special words in for the recipient! Here is Aidan's name in the white area. This is after laundering, so you see the lovely crinkles, and also an up-close shot of the lovely Aurifil variegated orange thread in the migrating geese.

Below is where I quilted my initials and also a closer look at the flanged binding and the backing.

Orange is Aidan's favourite colour. I used a variety of threads. Avril purred along with all of them.

On my way back to the SUV, I spied another good shot for this Tropicana-looking quilt!

Yup! Those are palm trees, in the ground! I imagine they are either these Chinese variety of palms hardy to our zone, a 7a/b, or in pots that they dig out and put in one of the many many greenhouses in our area.

One last shot at the parking lot overlooking the beach and the park and lake.

Because of el-crapola wifi in the hotel, this post has taken a LOT longer to do than my usual, ha, long time. I will update it with stats once we are back at home. 

Yvonne's pattern is a super one if you enjoy quilts with 'extras' like optical illusions, shadows, or transparency in this case. It goes together super-quick and is 60" square without the migrating geese borders I added. It is available on Craftsy. (affiliate link) Remember classes are all (ALL!) on sale under $20 woot! woot! So smart of them, after that free day. I know once I'm back Canada-side, later this evening, I'll be snagging one or two of the four I watched at this great price.

Update from back home in Kingsville
I have to say, my beloved Lake Erie was eerily like my other beloved, The Gulf of Mexico in Florida that morning.

A little different-looking fruits of the sea at the water's edge:

Look closely and you may spy some beach glass

Only half an hour of beach walking yielded me this bounty:

My heart and thoughts and prayers are with all my dear friends in the path of Irma as she heads towards Florida.

Here are two shots of the after-laundering texture. It always surprises me how much quilts shrink up, usually 2" horizontally and vertically. Sorry she's a bit wrinkled from being folded while we were in Detroit for three days.

Looks good on the green grass! We finally got a bunch of rain.

The angle of the sun shows off the centre design well here

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Triangle Transparency
Size: 59.5 X 74.5"before washing; 57.5 X 71 5/8" after
Fabric:  Moda Grunge is the white and dark orange, Moda Concrete Rock Solid is the medium, Kona Cheddar
Batting: Warm n Natural
Quilted: on my Avanté
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann cotton; quilted with Essential: Pumpkin, Apricot and Parchment, and Aurifil variegated orange; The Bottom Line in the bobbin

Linking up

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Devoted Quilter
Busy Hands Quilts
Elm Street Quilts