Tuesday 28 April 2015

Over the Hills and Far Away - an optical illusion finish.

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side  This is my second finish for the 2015 Q2 Finish Along. For my second quarter list click here.

Finally it's finished. My Optical Illusion wall hanging has been named "Over the Hills and Far Away" because when I was quilting it that line from a traditional English song kept going through my head. I see hills and valleys in the design.


When quilting I left the square of the 25 smallest pieces as it was. but quilted through the other purple blocks diagonally in both directions. The yellow and green pieces I left alone, except for the largest (and darkest) green pieces which are also quilted diagonally in both directions, and the adjacent greens which are quilted diagonally in one direction.  Originally they were unquilted but the space between quilting lines was much too large.

Here's a close up which shows my very sparse quilting; I was afraid that dense quilting would detract from the optical effect so quilting is practical rather than aesthetic.


For the backing I used a Halloween fabric from the LQS's special offer shelf. We don't really do Halloween here, so it's not surprising it didn't sell. The colour is just right for this though, isn't it.

Quilt statistics:
Size 41 x 28.5"  (104 x 71 cm)
fabric: Bella solids in nine shades of yellow and green and one purple
Thread; Aurifil 40 in matching purple and green
Wadding: cotton (standard as supplied locally)
Backing: Happy H"owl-o-ween by Deb Strain for Moda
If you're interested in the process of designing and making this wall hanging you can read about it here, here and here.

Having bound it yesterday evening and washed it this morning I'm going to share it this week with:

 Wednesday link up Sew Fresh Quilts Needle and Thread Thursday
 Lily's Quilts
so click on the buttons for the link (as they become available) to see what others have been working on this week.

At the end of June I'll be linking up with

 2015 FAL at On the Windy Side
Happy sewing

Marly.

19 comments:

Christine B said...

Congratulations on a lovely finish Marly! This is a very interesting quilt to look at... it draws you in! :) x

Vicki in MN said...

Congrats on a finish for the FAL, pretty!

Julierose said...

This is a lovely piece; so original and pretty..hugs, Julierose

Chantal said...

It's perfect fabric for the backing of this quilt. Beautiful quilt I should add. Great job Marly!

Lisa J. said...

The optical illusion is so interesting. The backing is perfect on the back. It is a cuter version of the fabric we used for our guild challenge. Congratulations on your finish.

Lisa J. said...

The optical illusion is really interesting . You did a good job with it. The background fabric works really well with the front of the quilt . It is a cuter version of the challenge fabric from our guild show. Congratulations on your finish.

Vireya said...

Wow! It looks amazing!

Lorna McMahon said...

Beautiful job of the quilting, Marly! Love that backing. It matches perfectly and those little owls are super cute. Nice finish!

Skootchover said...

Visiting from Let's Bee Social. Mesmerizing top. Love this.

molly b quilts said...

I've already mentioned how much I love your design, but kudos to you for the clever solution to quilting it! Your quilting adds to the overall design without distracting from it. I would have never thought to quilt the lines you did. Very cool!

Anita said...

Your quilt is beautiful, Marly! I enjoy optical illusion quilts; actually my nextbig quilt project is an optival illusion one.

Judy Cooper Textile Artist said...

Love the optical illusion quilt. Backing fabric is a fun one.

LA Paylor said...

good job and congrats on finishing. I think it would be hard to quilt an illusion quilt, that it might make me dizzy! LeeAnna at not afraid of color

Julie said...

I'm not sure I could do an optical illusion quilt. Makes me woozy! Joking! I think it would be hard to get everything just SO here, and you've done it. I can see finding that one spot I would miss proper alignment with. You carried it off so well. Congratualtions on your cute finish.

Julie @ Pink Doxies

Jayne said...

So great! I have been in to optical illusion quilts too and have one I'm just finishing up! Yours is amazing!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Neat quilt and congrats on the finish!

Kathinca said...

Nice job on this finish. I keep looking everywhere and i think the sparse quilting is just perfectly complimenting the beautiful colourcombination.

Vicki in MN said...

Congrats on the finish-definitely an optical illusion!

Leanne said...

This is a beautiful quilt, good work on finishing it! I'm helping Adrianne with the FAL and I am to say that I am visiting as part of the 2015 FAL Cheerleading Team.