Cathedral Visions - UFO

I'm working on getting my studio cleaned up, since I have a studio tour coming up... in April!  OK, maybe that seems like a lot of time, but I need it to be ready.  The studio tour is one way that we're raising money for the LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum through StashFest.  Different artists are offering studio tours which people can purchase as and "Insider Visit" at StashFest.  So I'm really motivated to get my studio in tip-top shape.

Cathedral Visions - designed and machine pieced
by Christina Fairley Erickson

Part of cleaning up is to go through my UFO's and figure out what I need to finish them off... or if I should even bother.  Sometimes a project just doesn't speak to you anymore.  If that's the case, let it go.  There are plenty of groups who make charity quilts who would love your unfinished bits and pieces.  It's quite a relief to give things away.  Give yourself permission to get rid of pieces that you really don't want anymore.  Many people are even selling partially completed items on eBay... then they can take their earnings and go get more fabric!

My original drawing from my photograph

So, here is today's UFO: Cathedral Visions.  I started this quilt for a show (Sacred Spaces) but didn't finish it on time... so it was put on a shelf and has sat there about 2 years.  It is completely machine pieced (not appliqued) and I made all the fabrics myself (hand-dyed and painted.)

Each section was numbered to cut out the pieces

I've done quite a bit of traveling and this comes from a photo of an inside of a cathedral which I took.  The values represent the darks from all the beams and shadows of the convoluted spaces, as well as the light coming through some stained glass windows.

I'm sure you can see the challenges this piece presented when looking at all those curves and sharp angles!

While I like this piece, I feel like it doesn't entirely work somehow.  I can't quite get my finger on it... I know that adding freemotion quilting will help it to a certain extent.  I'll be checking Leah Day's FreeMotion Quilting Project for inspiration.  

Detail view of Cathedral Visions

I'd love any comments, critique and feedback you might offer!

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Curved Piecing Tutorial - 
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For Wonderful Tutorials on FreeMotion Quilting and other quilting topics

Curved Piecing Tutorial - Waterfall Quilt

Last week I promised to get back to my UFO "Waterfall Quilt."  Well, I've made some progress with it:

Waterfall Quilt last week

Waterfall Quilt this week

One of the waterfall squares with
curved piecing

As you can see, I've added a couple rows (and I obviously need to get a larger design wall that my pieces can stick to!)  More importantly, I think, is that I removed pieces that I felt didn't really work, either due to the patterning of the material, or more likely, the color flow wasn't right.  Actually, now that I look at the photograph, I see a few other pieces that I'll probably switch out, since they don't have quite the right value. I call this my waterfall quilt as I wanted the curved pieces to make it feel like water trickling down, as well as the blues and greens to represent the water and surrounding forest.

I thought you might like to find out how I do the curved inserts which I'm working on adding to all the blocks. Believe it or not, it's a fairly simple process.  Certainly simpler than doing the video... so please excuse me if my videography needs a little perfecting!

For other interesting blogs and tutorials:

Check out how other quilters are finishing up their UFO's on Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project

Carol's portrait of Max, a yellow lab shows a great progression for doing a pictorial quilt.

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Week 2 of the 5 x 7 
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Fireworks Freemotion 
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How to Make a 
Knotted Blanket Stitch

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Tutorial Links