My Whole Cloth is finished!

After some initial fear about actually quilting on RJR Radiance (80/20 blend of cotton and silk with a nice sheen) that prompted an email to Angela Walters, my whole cloth is finished with the exception of blocking and binding! I'm liking the results, despite a tiny tuck in the backing from having to roll back/forth due to the circular design. I still plan to enter it into the KCRQF in June ( with the tuck!) cause I really have been working on this design for 2 yrs with the intent of entering it into the KCRQF. Gathering ribbons is not my goal (but would be nice!); getting feedback on my design and quilting is why I'm entering it.

Some info on using the Radiance fabric for this quilt: I had heard from a number of long arm quilting teachers (Jamie Wallen, Angela Walters, Krista Withers, Kimmy Brunner, Dusty Farrell) the wonder of Radiance for whole cloth quilts. That it quilted so nicely, had a nice luster (but not shiny) and really dressed up whole cloths quilts without the expense of 100% silk. I ordered mine from eQuilter.com (although Angela Walters carries some colors in her shop and on-line) and once it arrived, I started second guessing it's use. It seemed rather sheer at first, which worried me, plus wondered if binding with it would "play nicely". So I stalled while I worked on sketches for different parts of the quilt. I finally emailed Angela Walters and she assured me that it works great and doesn't look too sheer once on the long arm frame. She also recommended using a poly bat so that the quilt would pack nice and not have wrinkles for the show. I did mark with water soluble blue pen and will need to immerse in plain water before blocking to remove those. But my marking was limited to drawing the globe and dividing the remaining area into the 12 sections.

So here it is--my final whole cloth, ready and waiting to be blocked and bound. The name is "We Are...All the Colors of the World". (the Radiance is Ivory and lighting is poor---finished late on this winter day).