Saturday, April 30, 2016

Spring Fever

Everything is in bloom right now. We have lilacs, anemones, tulips, violets, crabapples, redbuds, etc. I love the way it all looks but my allergies are in high gear. The chestnut trees in the neighborhood seem to be the biggest culprit. My appliqued flowers don't cause me problems.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Alpaca Batting Is Nice

Now that I have done a decent amount of quilting I can report that the alpaca/cotton batting is very easy to quilt by hand. It is quite thin and lightweight, almost like one of those specially thin battings and very easy to work with to keep stitches small and even. My original concern was that it might be too dark since it is clearly darker than my usual all wool or cotton battings. But there doesn't seem to be any unusually dark spots showing through the ecru fabric that is in the center of the quilt. I got it through eQuilter online and it was sold by the yard rather than in a pre-cut measurement. This is the second time I have recommended them but I promise I don't get any favors other than their superior customer service that everyone gets.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Middle Quilting Done

Nearly thirty years ago when I taught myself how to quilt, I knew nothing about quilts. My mother sewed but not particularly well. Her biggest hobbies or daily obsessions depending on how one looks at it were cleaning and bridge. Even though she had originally started college with an art scholarship, her interest in any creative activities was virtually non-existent and her taste ran to the ultra-modern in home decor. I flunked the sewing portion of home-ec in 8th grade and I had never even seen a quilt in person when I started making quilts. Consequently some of the language of quilting might as well have been a foreign language.

The guidelines for making a quilt indicated that the binding should be "well stuffed." To me stuffing something meant just that, physically inserting something into an empty or nearly empty cavity, so I patiently added polyfill, not batting, to my first few bindings. They ended up very fat and stiff but I didn't know any better. Most quilt directions, even for quilts described as easy or good for beginners also ended with "Quilt as desired," which provided no guidance at all.

I had never used a thimble. That was still true for some time after I started since I just couldn't adjust to sewing with one. Wearing a thimble out never occurred to me so when that happened the first time I was flabbergasted. How could this be possible? 

Today I wore out another one, making approximately a half dozen worn through in thirty years. But I did finish the very involved and elaborate center section of the new quilt. Of course the thimble had seen yeoman use long before this quilt but it is only about three years old.  There is no such thing as a forever thimble.

Monday, April 18, 2016

What's In A Name?

My husband , the one who started this blog and takes all the photographs, asked me what I plan to call this quilt. I jokingly said that it was still Order Out of Chaos in my mind. Anyone have another idea?

It still needs to be trimmed from the back and marked more completely for quilting.  That will only take a short time so I should be basting my quilt sandwich tomorrow. I got a batt that is half alpaca and half cotton. I have never used this type before but it feels wonderful to touch.

Here is the previous photo of the top before any embroidery and before the edge was added. The differences are more clear in person but I hope you get the idea. I. like old-fashioned quilts and this one borrows from Rose Kretsinger and Ted Storm without copying either, not that my skills are comparable to either of those women. It is about 50 inches square and will be quilted by hand every half inch and around all the flowers with a more elaborate center that doesn't feature feathers. I think I might add a small piping before the binding as well.



Sunday, April 17, 2016

Nearly Complete and Ready for Marking and Layering

After one bad design moment, what I worked on was much too busy, I decided to go for plain and simple on the outside. Since I had a decent amount of one of the yellows (remembering my wild yellow spree from a while ago), I simply made a frame, no more than 2.75 inches wide at its widest point on the ogee edge, mitered the corners and am halfway around doing the blindstitching of the edge. So tomorrow there will be a new photo. The first post and photo was on 2/20/16 so this is moving much faster than I anticipated. Of course it is going to have quite a lot of quilting with nothing further apart than half an inch at most and that will take time.

Come back tomorrow afternoon to see the photo before it gets even more marked up with blue ink. If you like it, leave a message. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

One More Day

I have gotten to where I can say with confidence that I will finish the embroidery stage tomorrow. I have less than one-half of the last corner left to do and my husband has a two hour dentist appointment--it's a long story but he blames me. That's okay since marriage is for better or for worse so there never is a villain. He is getting the top to his implant--that took a long time since he let an infection go for so long that the necrotic bone didn't want to heal--and most of the first stage of crowns on his two front teeth. I am glad that both problems are going to be finished tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Comparisons

I have done some of the embroidery and thought pictures might be instructive.

In this photo the left side elements have been embroidered as have the small yellow dots on each wisteria bloom. The lily embroidery is more subtle than the yellow flower embroidery but I think it is still effective. I plan some outlining and detailing on the large green leaves as well.

In the pictures below the upper parrot has been embellished but the lower one has not.




Monday, April 4, 2016

Step One Complete

I finished the applique a few minutes ago and my husband took a picture. Now comes the embroidery work. I am not that skilled at embroidery, but I do like the effect so I keep plugging away at it. There are many places that will look different, better I hope, from what you see here.

I haven't decided what the next border will be. I am thinking of a foundation pieced strip in a couple of the colors in the quilt. Of course that means any one of the colors of the rainbow since that is what the applique is. There will be more fancy quilting in the blank area between the elaborate center as well. And though the design is not a mirror image the secondary impression is of a circle.