Thursday, October 25, 2012

NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION

 
I posted this video back in 2010.She speaks of knitting, but it relates to all hand crafts. It expresses my personal philosophy about the importance of our work and the need to continue to make quilts, but more importantly, to continue to teach the process. So I am off to Houston for the festival. I leave you with this profound video.

Monday, October 22, 2012

NEW PINCUSHION

 
 
 

I find myself in between projects. I leave for Houston this week so I don't want to commit to starting a large quilt. Perfect time to tryout some small pieces. This is a paper pieced pattern from Charise Creates, and it is free .I thought it would make a great pincushion. The complete picture is quite impressive. Believe me, this is not for the faint of heart. The spool has nine pieces and is less than an inch square!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

MUSING



PONDERING




I want to thank everyone for your wonderful respone to Autumn. It makes me jump for joy!


Thursday, October 11, 2012

AUTUMN COMPLETED

Can you believe the gradient fabric below is what started this journey? My original intent was to do a whole cloth quilt using different thread colors as well as patterns. Then it really hit me. Why not just cut at certain areas and  piece it using a slight curve, add some hand dyed and print fabric and a central "art" insert. There, you have it. What do you think?
 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

FINISHING AUTUMN

Isn't it interesting how things take on a life of there own? The top of Autumn is similar to the bottom in terms of curved piecing. So to unify the quilting as well as the quilt I repeated the curvy quilting, again not following the same curve of the seam. Does that make sense? I did use that same red/black thread in the lower area and a gold in the upper area. I left some very small areas unquilted, just to keep it from being to dense, yet tomorrow you will see the amount of quilting is pretty even. Have a great day!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF AUTUMN


Color correctness in photography is so important and I just don't have it yet. The solid fabric at the bottom is brown. A soft rich earthy brown. I continued using 40 wt. thread. This thread is variegated with black and rusty red. I knew I wanted to create a little more texture so I did what you should not do in quilting close lines. I went back and forth instead of stopping and starting on the same side to PREVENT shirring. I thought a little shirring would add interest and I like it. I also did not want to quilt pebbles just because many would expect it on a quilt like this. I want a feeling of flowing,wind blowing and calm. One last thing. Following the curve of the pieced insert would be OK, but ignoring that exact curve and just sewing curvy lines is ,I think a more dynamic  statement along with just three quilted  leaves. Tomorrow you will see the upper area and Thursday the entire piece. Thanks for all your wonderful comments.
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Monday, October 8, 2012

AUTUMN CONTINUED

Progressing toward the bottom, just beneath the tree background is a small area of hand dyed color, so straight line quilting separates and calm things down a bit. The area around the base of the trees needed movement to mimic rows. Thinking of planting and harvesting done in the fall. Finally the area below the rows reminded me of water. A lake in my autumn forest. You can see a peek of the brown, but I will save that for another post. I continued to use 40 wt except for the dyed area and that was DMC 50 wt. It is going very well. All thoughts, questions and comments are welcomed.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

DESIGN DECISIONS



One of the most frequent questions in FMQ is how do you decide what to quilt where. This is a good example of that dilemma. I have multiple odd shapes that need to be united to keep the section as "one". The answer to me was to echo the shapes. I used 40 wt thread that is a sort of gold brown color. I did quilt the trees first with a 40 wt very black thread. I mention the weight of the thread as so many tutorials don't. The 40 wt thread shows more than a 50 wt. and I want the quilting to stand out. If you don't mind, I'll let you see the progression of the quilting and pass on any info I think will be helpful as I think Autumn has some quilting challenges.
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Saturday, October 6, 2012

WORKING ON AUTUMN



Have been working on a class project that I cannot show just yet. So not wanting to start another large piece, I thought playing with design and fabric would " hold me over". I will get it finished soon. How's your Autumn so far?
 
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