Visiting Grands and a very old silk project

 

I visited my brand new Granddaughter plus her brother, Mom and Dad last week. We waited to visit until they were visitor-ready, hence I missed posting last week.

Oh it was glorious! Newborns are so helpless and life is so hard for them. Morgan has a blister on her lip from nursing so much; the girl is huuuuungry!

We got to spend time with our 3 1/2 yr old grandson Logan and just got a feel for his day-to-day life. It is a good one! We visited the Hiller Air Museum, a few parks and watched swim practice.

Pink Jeep is required to watch Logan swim. Jeep’s view must not be obstructed. Logan is a Car Guy! He knows makes and models of cars, can call out just about any car on the road.

Oh grands are just grand!

I took a project with me:

I was ready to layer this guy up and then it occurred to me that some hand embroidery would enhance it, create levels of interest, detail and texture.

Some of this collection of DMC cotton embroidery floss may well date back to the last century, although none of it was damaged or weak.

Interesting history of this quilt. It began waaaaay back, early century, maybe 2005. I love silk and had already been collecting silk. Then JoAnn’s decided to discontinue most silks and sold their stock off at a huge discount. I haunted all the local stores as the discount got deeper and deeper. This probably doubled my silk stash. I have a LOT of silk!

I decided I was going to make whimsical flowers, just for fun. Remember, this is early century. I fused a fairly thick knit fusible to stabilize them, which unfortunately added thickness and bulk. I put layer atop layer and cut out the excess as I went. I used a wide variety of threads to machine buttonhole stitch them together.

Another unfortunate choice was to use glue to hold some pieces on until stitched; I used a stupid, hard glue which was awful to stitch through.

I needed weapons to do my hand embroidery through all those layers and that glue. In many cases I had to “drill” a hole first to get my needle through.

Some of the pieces were big enough that each stitch on the edge of the flower had to be tied off. Soooooo, on this piece, every knot on the edge of the stripes had to be “drilled” first, then each knot individually tied off. Yeah, it was slow going.

Some parts had 3 or 4 layers with that awful knit stabilizer PLUS that wicked glue. I needed my needle puller a LOT!

Although it was tedious to do the hand embroidery, it felt childlike, unfussy and just fun!

So already, there are 3 problems:

• the thickness of the flowers
• very hard to hand stitch the areas with the hard glue
• I have no idea where some of these silks came from. I guarantee there are several bleeders in there.

So, I cannot wash or even spray this quilt with water for almost certainly there will be a bleed. That impacts basting. I used the 505 stick to baste the backing to the batting.

But to baste the top I will have to use, UGH, pins! I spit that word out with venom! I can’t spray baste as it stains silk. I can’t hand baste because of the nasty glue. I can’t glue baste because it also stains.

And, I can only mark with disappearing products. Another ugh. And NO, no Frixxion pens!

But, I am in LOVE with this quilt. Oh, the sheen. Swoon!

I had a blast hand embroidering the flowers. I have a vision for this quilt:

• It is to be whimsical, almost childlike. The flowers are not symmetrical, but downright wonky, which I adore.
• No beads or crystals, that would take it too formal and serious.
• I used a limited number of types of  hand embroidery stitches. This is not a showcase of fancy Sue Spargo type stitches. I do not mean that snarky, just trying to communicate my vision.

I’m still debating on the background. I do want the quilting to be a feature and I don’t want an all-over. I typically grid or have something linear when there are lots of curves. But I don’t want it entirely grid either. I want it flowy and happy and whimsical.

I will need to layer up the top and finish the basting. Then I will ditch around each flower, so I will have plenty of time to ponder my quilting plan.

Ah but look what was on the frig at Logan and Morgan’s place:

Look familiar😊?

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday