I found 3 quilts….and more

It’s a catch up week, lived in 3 segments: a visit to the Quilt Guilds of the North Quarter (QGNC), prepping for a class to make a quilted jacket, and I FOUND 3 quilts in my home!

First, a visit to the QGNQ Meet the Teachers event last Saturday. QGNC serves and supports the quilt guilds of far northern California, mostly smaller guilds. I have not visited for a while and it was a great visit! Country Quilts and Crafts,  a new-to-me and I think new shop in Willits, hosted the event. They have a great selection of fabrics and a huuuuge meeting/classroom area. It’s worth checking out!

Towards the center right of that photo in hot pink at the front is Arlene Arnold who heads up the organization. I guess there were about 60 attendees, not including the 13 presenting teachers, pretty strong attendance. I walked away with several contracts, so it was a fruitful visit. I drove up with my friend Colleen Pelfrey and……I didn’t pay attention. We took an unexpected 40 minute “agricultural tour” detour. Don’t tell Hubby; I’ve been known to do this and I don’t want to hear it😊Colleen is great company, so it was very pleasant.

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I am taking a quilted coat class in May through my guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild. The class is with Diana Karna and of course requires a bit of prep. We will cut out our coat in class, but you need to prep your fabric ahead of time. As usual, I am making it harder than it needs to be:
– I’m using a variety of fabric, not just one.
– All those fabrics are silk.
– Most of them are squishy, luscious silk that requires stabilizing.

I’ve spent about 3 hours fusing the stabilizer to my silks. Silks are fussy to work with. I had to cut the stabilizer to size; it just takes time to stabilize yardage. I did not want anything that altered the hand of the fabric; I’m very picky about what I fuse to silk.

Most of the fabric was stabilized with Pellon Bi-Stretch Lite (#865F), but I ran out. I dug through my stash and found some really old Palmer Plesch PerfectFuse Light which is faaaabulous! It’s 60″ wide (thank you!) and kind of a morph between a woven and non-woven. It is very light weight, easy to work with, and so wide. It was a great find in the mess of my interfacing stash. I ordered a bunch more. Now all my yardage is fused.

I have a very deep stash of silk. This was my pull:

The ones on the left are rejects for this project and the ones on the right are what I will use. The animal-ish print on the top is charmeuse and diviiiiine! It will be my lining. I LOVE a jacket with luscious silk lining; it just slips onto your body; yum!

This was my first pull and the inspiration for the project. That base was something I quilted years ago. It’s a little odd that it has half grid, quarter sashiko and a quarter matchstick. Don’t ask me why; it was quilted long ago. The hand dyed antique linen is a treasure I purchased from Wendy Richardson at the Houston show. Isn’t it fabulous?

The panel was not wide enough, so I needed to create something to add to and widen each side. This fabulous stripe got the nod.

My mock up of part of the back. I will use a strip of the lining fabric between the center and each side.

Whenever I use hand dyes, I feel like it is a collaboration between me and the dyer. I have the tags from most of the silks. I thank the artist who dyed these fabulous silks and linen:

I will be working this weekend (hopefully), quilting up the rest of the silks that I will use for my jacket. This jacket is going to be awesome!

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When I initially began my search for textiles to use for this jacket, I thought I would use old quilts and cut them up. I began to dig through my stash and found these 3 beauties that I will NOT be cutting up!

I bought this quilt years ago (way pre-shutdown) from the Pioneer Guild show:

I LOVE this quilt! I just forgot about it. It now hangs in the hall to my bedroom. It looks glorious there. I don’t know the maker. I do need to steam it.

Such clever use of striped fabric! And the wiggle quilting is just perfect for this!

I made this in 2004:

I haven’t found a place for this one. I learned the hard way about using crap metallic thread from this quilt. I quilted this with Sulky Metallic which has a poly core with a metallic wrap. The wrap is not evenly applied and the metallic part was frequently unwrapping which created thread barf on the top. It also shrank back when I would end my stitching line. I literally almost stopped quilting after this quilt. Then I discovered that quality thread makes a huge difference.

And I am auditioning this one in my Living room:

I am weary of that mirror. I would like to put something else there and large art is expensive. On a whim, I hung this quilt over the mantle just as an audition to replace the mirror. I think it goes well with the decor and also leans “Modern” even though that wasn’t even a term back then (2002?). This was inspired by Gwen Marston, bless her soul. Wish she were still here. She was a phenom.

And yes I DO use my Living room! Everything is protected with a coating so I don’t worry about dirt or spills. It is super comfy and even the faux arrangement is suitable for toddlers to paw. The light is great and I hang out there and read. I think that quilt would look great where the mirror is. Hubby says no. Maybe I will “audition” it there and just never get around to taking it down…..

Well, that’s my week. I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday