Dot Art Wholecloth Quilt

At the end of September I finished up my Aurifil thread challenge, a wholecloth quilt featuring Aurifil 28 wt thread and Windham Fabric's Artisan Color. 

 

Dot Art Wholecolth Quilt

 

When I started thinking about this project I was inspired by dot art and the use of circles and curves to make a intricate pattern.  I love that my longarm will quilt perfect circles so I thought the dot art inspiration adn my available tools were a great pairing for completing this project.

 

Dot Art Design

I began by designing what I wanted to do in Photoshop.   I though it would be smarter to have layout completed before I began quilting, picking stitches is never fun especially if the quilt is loaded on a longarm.  After I had a design I was happy with I saved it and transferred the file to my longarm computer.  I imported the design into the software and rebuilt the design using the longarm software.  After I had the design done for the second time I split it into, roughly half, and began quilting with a light blue Aurifil thread.

 

Dot Art Wholecloth Quilt

 After the main design was done I echoed the design and added horizontal straight lines to the background with a pale green Aurifil thread.  I really like how subtle the change between the two is and how the difference is hard to see if the light doesn't hit it right.  This mimicked the woven look of the fabric which also featured two thread colors.

 

Aurifil 28 wt thread

 Finally I wanted to add a hint of pattern to the quilt so I chose a print for the binding.  The soft colors and watercolor feel of the printed added just enough interest to the quilt without over powering the entire look.

Dot Art Wholecloth Quilt

The finished quilt ended up being, roughly, 38'' x 40'' and great wall hanging size.  I also kept the design off center to give the main design more presence and greater interest.  I'm so happy with this quilt that I've kept it up on the wall where I took the pictures.  It's a nice calming piece and perfect for my busy entryway.

Wood Slice

Lastly, I wanted to also share a block I completed for my group sewing bee, Bee Inspired.  Sarah gave us a wonderful prompt inspired by her memories of growing up around trees.  My tree slice block is a combination of dresden plate/wedge and  drunkard's path templates.  I improv pieced the stripes then cut the wedge shapes from the strip set.  I then pieced the wedges into a large enough arc to cut my convex shape from.  I really like the overall look and will love playing with this technique some more.

"'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?'  Jesus said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."'" Matthew 22:36-40