Wayward Transparency QAL

I've been looking forward to today, as this is when Yvonne (QuiltingJetGirl) opens up linkys to her  Wayward Transparency Quilt Along that began in mid-November. 

If these quilts look familiar, I counted them as one quilt finish in 2017. But until now, I haven't fully shared the quilt along process of them. I'm excited to do that now!

The most difficult part of the QAL for me was choosing three values of a difficult color: orange. I knew I wanted orange because it had the best chance of actually being used! 

Painter's Palette Amber is the light

Riley Blake Shade Tangerine is the medium

and Kona Flame is the dark

I tested the contrast in values by turning the color photo into black and white (an easy auto edit in Photos). It looked good! 

Upon completing four units, 

I considered quilt arrangement options, and put it to Instagram followers to suggest which arrangement to choose... 

...or whether to line them up to hang them above our quadruple sliding glass doors.

After settling on "hang above the doors," the question became whether to sew four together in a row; or five together in a row; or finish four individually; or finish five individually! By a majority preference for five stand-alone quilts, I moved forward. 

Having just discovered a recipe for homemade basting spray - you know how you get on the Internet and follow rabbit trails? - I made some to test on these five small quilts. 

The homemade spray worked so well that I have since used it to baste and quilt a 58" X 58" quilt. I'm now a believer, and it's my new favorite method of basting! Here's the recipe, in case you're interested.

I also highly recommend going here to read StringandStory's thorough tutorial about how to achieve positive results.

All batting is Quilter's Dream Request Loft Poly (leftovers from a large roll), and thread is 50-weight Aurifil. Since quilting wouldn't show very much with the quilts being hung so high, I made quilting simple by using the walking foot.

Wanting a clean edge on each quilt, I looked up and used a WeAllSew tutorial for faced binding and repeated that a total of five times. Not all my backing fabrics are the same, nor are the facing fabrics. I used only fabrics I had on hand.  

When they were finished, I took this picture of four of them together, and then...

... went to the living room and tested different arrangements. I used FunTack to temporarily hold them up while I took a number of photos. The staggered look was quickly nixed. 

The straight line look was best. Then came the challenge of figuring out which direction to point each quilt! On the Saturday before Christmas, I spent a couple hours hanging them. Just so.

It's tough to get a good photo when you're aiming toward light, but I think this picture best shows the impact of the quilts in the room. They're a nice complement to the adjacent orange wall.

I'm very happy I live in a place where it's acceptable to use bright colors year 'round!

Even more, I'm more thrilled with the outcome of this QAL! To have made something I can actually use -  versus the many quilts that immediately find their way into a pillowcase to be stored at the top of our master bedroom closet - is a real treat! And along the way, I learned how to achieve transparency.

Thank you, Yvonne, for leading us on this adventure! Linda