BQF: Oceans of Love

Time again for Blogger's Quilt Festival, which I like to participate in, when I can. This year, I have my Oceans of Love quilt --- I originally submitted this to the Sacred Threads exhibit, but it was not chosen, so I'm showing it off here instead.

I have to say, I am so insanely proud of this quilt. If you want to learn more about it, please follow the "Oceans of Love" tag at the bottom of this post (or click that link in the prior statement) and read up on how this quilt came to be, what all it means, and the ups and downs of the process of making this quilt.

This is a traditional Storm at Sea design, but all original coloring designed by me. I used EQ7 to work out the design and as my pattern for templates (for the diamond blocks) and coloring placement guide as I pieced the blocks, since the coloring is rather complex.

Every color placement is symbolic, which you can read about in detail in prior posts, but the basic meaning of the quilt is this:

The inspiration behind this quilt started with three songs. First, a song about the love of Christ, His gift to us; second, a song about compassion for those suffering, those we might otherwise ignore; lastly, a song reminding us that in the end, after all the tears have been cried, there is love. 

One day it hit me – together, these songs sum up Christianity. To love God with our whole heart, to love our neighbor as our self, to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. 

This quilt is my attempt to represent that in fabric. 

I did all of the quilting myself, on my domestic machine; it's not a large quilt -- it is 39.5" on each side, and was designed to fit in this little nook at the top of my stairs, thus the size.

The quilting is kept simple on purpose because I wanted the overall design itself to speak the loudest.

I echo quilted inside each separate element, as it were; inside the white of the cross, with pearly white thread; inside the central "drums" to echo and enhance that they are meant to be tribal style drums, along the center & radiating out from the flesh toned rays, and then inside the waves in the outer, primary-colored section to enhance the waves or curves formed by the Storm at Sea pattern.

I tailored the thread choices to the fabric, using white for the white, a Sulky gold thread for the flesh toned areas and for the drums in the center, and a variegated King Tut thread for the red/yellow/blue area; I used matching threads on the back as well, using solid white, gold or royal blue to coordinate with the top thread being used.

Binding was done in the traditional double-fold, attached to the back by machine then folded over & hand sewn to the front, using mitered corners.

I love seeing this at the top of my stairs every day; it was a tremendous challenge in precision quilting for me, and I'm very proud of the effort and the outcome put in.

I'm linking this up to the Small Quilts Category of the Spring 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival; I hope you'll vote for my quilt or at least take a peek at the other entrants and vote for your favorite, whatever that might be!

Oceans of Love....Final Peek!

One more peek, then I'm submitting to Sacred Threads and won't post again until I find out if I was accepted or not.....meanwhile I'll update on what else I've been working on in between. ha!

Fixed it!

Got that corner all un-sewed and fixed up, and made a change to how I'm spacing the lines, which I like better...what do you think?

Before

After

Originally, I had two lines inside each curve, but I worried that when I repeated that on the narrower bands, it would look more like empty spaces that weren't meant to be there; in the narrowest parts, it would be lines quilted only 1/4" apart, but in the wider areas there would be 1" to 2" gaps.

I really wasn't excited about that, so after un-sewing the corner I had sewn to the back, I decided to start over with one line along each (top and bottom of each curve) and see what I thought. Now it has a line quilted 1/4" on either side of the curves created by the pattern, with empty space between, and the empty space looks and feels much more intentional. It also keeps it more in line with the rest of the quilting throughout the other sections of the quilt.

I think I like it! Turns out a mistake this time was a reason to make a needed change, for the better of the quilt. Love when that happens!

Now to finish....

Quilting the Oceans of Love Quilt....

I have been hard at work quilting the top, trying to make the deadline for Sacred Threads. I knew what I wanted to do for most of the quilting, so it was fairly easy to manage.

I inside-echo quilted the white cross, with a pearly white thread for a little sheen.

I outlined the "drums" to make them seem more "drummish" (I think they only look like drums in my head, but that's okay...), and added radiating lines coming from the drum centers along the flesh-toned rays, and spreading out on either side of center on those. I used a Sulky gold thread for that part to add shine. 

Then I was stumped on what to do for the multi-colored portion. I toyed with quilting hearts into the sections, but after consulting with my quilty bestie, I decided to do inside-echo lines following the waves or curves of the storm at sea pattern, to enhance that aspect of things. 

I had a variegated red-blue-yellow-purple thread for that, and got to work, one corner at a time. Then had a lot of un-sewing to do after the first corner. Well, it wouldn't be one of my quilts without a few mini-disasters along the way, right? 

First I managed to sew a scrap fabric to the back of the quilt. What the heck?

Then, a new-to-me danger of quilting a small quilt: folding the front corner over into the area you're quilting. Egads. How on earth did I manage this???

More importantly, how did I manage to not notice this for three whole lines???? Good grief. 

Looks nice on the front side, though, doesn't it? 

Ah well, time to do some un-sewing.....

Oceans of Love, coming together....

Whew! Lots of sewing, not much blogging, but blocks are getting done, and rows put together....the backing fabric was chosen, and I can see the finished line! Almost there!!!

Once I had all the blocks done, then I did move onto working section by section, which always feels easier to me than rows and rows. I divided the quilt into quadrants, sewed each quadrant, then assembled those larger "blocks" into the rows needed to make the top.

Top three individual quadrants, and the pattern for reference

row one assembled

second row of individual quadrants

The finished top!

backing fabric and thread
The back has a repeating verse about God's love....fitting for the theme of the quilt

Oceans of Love, continued....

The squares are all done, the diamonds are started, and it's looking like maybe I'll finish on time!

All the square-in-square blocks, done!

The first few, now corrected, diamond blocks....

Oceans of Love (the Sacred Threads Quilt), continued...

It's begun! Fabric has been cuts, blocks (tiny little blocks....the wall hanging will be just about 40" in each direction....) are being sewn.....I am in a race to make the deadline, but not sacrifice quality. I'm trying to sew with precision, which is hard for me.....eek! Fun, challenging, but hard.

I've cut all the pieces, and they are in baggies waiting to be sewn. Each baggy holds one size/shape of patch, so that as I follow my EQ7 print-out I can pull the correct piece from the correct bag. 

I originally planned to sew in sections, but after trying the middle and realizing those diamond units are HARD, I decided I had better do all the squares/same type of block at a time so I can chain piece some. Otherwise, I'll never make deadline. First up, the square-in-square blocks....then back to the diamonds. 

pieces cut and ready, in baggies.

The first block..

 The first diamond block I tried ended up wonky, which is what made me change my mind. I'll need to find a tutorial on aligning those blasted triangles before I proceed with the diamond blocks. Putting it aside for now and moving on with the squares....

See how the blue triangle is completely lined up wrong? Yea, not gonna work.
Moving on....

 Chain piecing the square-in-square blocks works really well, though! Even if they are teeny tiny.

See how small?!

 Wish me luck! The deadline is a bit earlier in March than I was thinking...it's got to be pieced, sewn together into a quilt top, and quilted with binding on and ready by early March. Much work to do!

Sacred Threads

I still haven't finished the Bon Appetit table runner, but I started a new project.

There's a quilt exhibition this summer, called Sacred Threads, and the submission deadline is mid-March.

I've had a quilt rumbling around in my head for a while, or at least the idea that I need to make a quilt based on this inspiration, but I've not had reason to sit down and work it out. Until now.

After much playing and trial & error in EQ7 I have arrived at the perfect design, bought fabrics (luckily coinciding with a fabric sale at my favorite semi-local quilt shop), started cutting.....I cannot wait to finish this.

So much of me is in this quilt....the inspiration comes from three songs, and sums up what it means to me to be a Christian.

Oceans of Love: the beginning

As with most of my quilts, it is full of symbolism and meaning. The colors were chosen based on one of the three songs, White, by Mike Rayson. This song uses the primary colors as a symbol of God's gift to humanity of his son, Jesus. Yellow, a baby born to die; red, the price He paid with his blood to save us. Blue, a river of mercy, forgiving us, making us His own. The white, likewise from that song, a symbol of how God looks at us (pure, clean and perfect) once we trust in and accept His gift to us of salvation through His Son.

The pattern is a Storm at Sea pattern, with a slightly tweaked arrangement to get a square layout instead of a rectangle, because I wanted the central cross to be just a bit less "cross shaped."  The pattern was chosen, though, because of the second song, After the Last Tear Falls, by Andrew Peterson. This song talks about how, in the end of everything, when all pain is over and done with, when we feel we can't go on one more moment, when all seems helpless and hopeless, there comes one more thing after all of that: love. Oceans and oceans of love, God's love which upholds us, strengthens us, carries us through all those hard, impossible, hopeless feeling things. We will get through those things, and once through to the other side of them we will see, we're carried in His hands, in an ocean of love. It speaks of end times, but I like to think of it as individual ends, each time we come through a last tear falling for any given situation, still God's love is there, all around us. And in the true end, the big End, still it will be God's love that wins out. So, Storm at Sea. Because in the storms of life, we're still in a sea of love.

The center is the most ambiguous and hard to capture, but comes from the song Bang a Drum, by Jon Bon Jovi; I love how this song challenges us each to care about others. To speak up for the voiceless, to help the helpless, to hold true to our beliefs, to never forget that we are all, each one of us, interconnected, and thus to go and live life in a way that honors that. And so, in the middle, "drums" -- I muted the colors of the outer edges, because our actions can only ever be approximations of walking in God's love; we can't accomplish it without Him. The white comes into the center, bringing us the gift of Christ; the flesh tone rays spread out, into the darkness, carrying the light of Christ into the world as we help one another, be that shoulder to lean on during the dark times, give a helping hand, pray for one another, minister to one another, etc.

I thought of examples like the Good Samaritan, stopping to care for a wounded traveler. Sharing God's love doesn't necessarily mean preaching and using words; it often means acting. Doing. Being. Taking dinner to the family of a cancer patient. Babysitting for the single mom down the street. Driving a friend to a doctor's appointment when her car is broken down. Hiring an out of work contractor to paint your house, because he won't accept a handout but will gladly take on a job. Donating food to the food bank, blankets to a shelter, time to volunteer, and so on. It's us, Christians, doing these things, being the hands & feet of Jesus, that pushes back the darkness, that helps to carry one another through those times we feel far away from God's love. It's us, living out the commands to love God with our whole heart, and to love our neighbor, that fulfills the law, that becomes part of that sea, that ocean of love.

We are all an intricate part of God's plan, sometimes off in the dark, sometimes in the center of His will banging a drum, sometimes carrying His light to the corners that need it most. And so, finally, with the Sacred Threads exhibit as a catalyst, I've designed this quilt. I hope I can pull it off in time, and as well as it deserves....