Breathe - Ta Da!

Here is Breathe. She is about 65" square after washing - she pulled in about 5" on each axis when I washed her. She is made from Kona cottons and Essex linen borders and binding. The matchstick quilting was done with Aurifil and Superior cotton threads in various colours.

I quilted her on my Millennium APQS longarm and the lines were all placed freehand without any computer or channel lock assistance. I need to point out that this is not that hard a thing to do on my nicely levelled Millennium as the machine likes to go horizontally. It is more a matter of not "over steering" than anything else to make the lines straight. In fact the harder part is to wobble them every so slightly while keeping the lines really close together for the industrial modern look I am trying to achieve.



I was trying to capture the concept of air, breath, calm and lightness. It is only fitting that when I had decent light and enough quilt holders, it was a bit windy.



There she is, breathing. And showing off my team of expert quilt holders in their chosen beach footwear.



The binding and borders are Essex linen. I think it is my favourite fabric ever. After washing, both the binding and the quilt have the industrial modern - think warehouse loft - texture and feel that I am hoping to achieve. You can also see a bit of the thread colours in this shot. I used whites, greys, blues, yellows, and purples, changing them randomly or when the bobbin was done.



Breathe is part of a series of quilts I call my Cycles quilts because the series began with a mini called Cycles. If you want to see them all, check out the My Quilts tab at the top of the blog.



While I made this quilt, I was stressed and worried and too busy, pulled in too many directions, and trying my best to manage everything everyone needed. I kept reminding myself to just breathe.



The back of this quilt was pieced to feature fabrics that I had on hand which also evoked the feeling of air.



The quilting and the thread changes look great on the back too.

You can see a bit of the yellow thread at the bottom of this photo of the back.



Despite the look of the photos, she really is square and flat.

I took that picture above to give you a bit of scale. She is lying on my king size bed below the pillows.



To me the darkest blue circle goes at the bottom right, but I think she looks good from most any angle.



I did keep breathing as I made this quilt. The outside forces have calmed for the summer now, and everything got done, all goals were achieved for everyone and we are now left, in my family, to try to just relax, refocus and to breathe, before the onslaught of new challenges in the fall.

Enjoy your Sunday, I plan to be back in this space much more often now.

Best,

Leanne