The Colorwash, Quilted and Bound

     Last week was a very difficult week for me. I was depressed and grieving over the situation here in NY. I am not a political person, but the line between life and death and the sacredness of human life is very clear. I could not function to sew. I won't elaborate, but to help pull me out of despair and mourning, I took out my Colorwash that I did in an online class with Wanda and quilted it on my Singer 301. 
     I used pencils especially made for marking fabric and I fear not all of it is coming out. I do not use markers for that reason. I will work on them with a wet towel again. 
     The idea for quilting was to be a burst, but not continuous from the center because that is the way the light moves in value. I chose two rectangle demarcations to stop and start the lines. 
     To start with, I used Invisfil to quilt with Bottom Line in the bobbin. Invisfil was recommended for quilting very finely. I bought an assortment in Houston. It is very thin. I could not get it to work. I tried a spool holder, running it through a paper clip, on the machine, and it kept breaking and not playing nice on the fabric. 
     I put Glide in the machine and it worked well, but I don't have all the colors I need to work over all the areas and it shows. I use Glide in my longarm and have cones of mostly neutral colors. Then it dawned on me to try the monofilament from YLI that has worked so well for me. I put it in, used PremoSoft in the bobbin and it worked like a charm. I was able to finish the quilt.
      The whole quilt was pressed well and then trimmed square. When I was Houston, I took a class from David Taylor, excellent appliquer and quilter. He showed how he used 1/4" Polyester twill tape sewn around the edges of his piece to stabilize the edges so it would lay perfectly flat, no waving. He cuts the sizes exactly as measured down the middle. Unfortunately, I can find it nowhere except in 4 yard packages which means you need a lot of packages and try to piece it. I sewed the longer sides first and then the top and bottom. Holy cow, does it lay flat!

Twill around edges. I used straight stitch. Could do a zig zag, but I did not think to switch machines.

All around the whole quilt

     I had to go back to the lesson, because I almost used facing, but realized it was to have a binding. In my new organization, I found some fabric pronto and cut and pressed the binding. I even remembered to sew the sleeve into the top binding. No problem sewing through the twill tape.

Detail of center

     So, although I have to handsew the sleeve down, and try to remove the markings, the Colorwash is done!! And I love it, and I am keeping it. And I want to make another. Thank you, Wanda!
      I have lots of little stuff I am trying to work on, but this helped me immensely. Thanks for looking!