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I was recently in the Denver area and had just a little time to visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum and tour their current show: “Male Call: Quilts Made By Men”. It was very interesting to see a collection of quilts made from the masculine viewpoint. I was surprised that the majority were hand quilted! Some had a combination of hand and machine quilting and I recall only one being ornately long arm quilted-who knew? There was a wide variety of style and construction techniques and I had a blast viewing this show in the little time I was there.Desert…
Did you know that even famous, “perfect” quilters have to block their quilts so that they hang straight? They do! I routinely expect to block my quilts. Saw Tooth Star, well, this poor baby really needed a blocking: it had over a 1″ variance in width and the whole quilt is only about 46 1/2″ “square” (square being a relative term)! You may recall, I inadvertently selected a cotton/poly blend fabric for my borders and sashing. So, when it came time to block, that poly part of my fabric was NOT going to give and stretch like cotton would. Such a compounding…
I’ve entered the Free Motion Quilting Challenge over at SewCalGal’s blog and I’m posting my February challenge. This surely must be the only thing I am ahead of deadline on so I’m quite pleased with myself. Although I do have a lot of experience with free motion, I was intrigued by the challenge because each month a different instructor of great expertise will post a tutorial. Diane Gaudynski was February’s gal so I was hooked. I haven’t done January’s challenge yet because I signed up late in the month. Frances Moore was January’s instructor and her tutorial on leaves was…
I’m a counter-I count things, I just can’t help it. So when I was bubble quilting away on the border of my Saw Tooth Star, I kept thinking, this is taking for-ev-er. So of course, I had to measure just how slowly it was going and sure enough, my pace was exactly 24″ an hour. Keep in mind that this is only about an inch wide! Bubbling takes awhile.It’s my not be evident from the photo, but one of the great things about the close quilting done by the bubbles is that it creates dimension in the surrounding areas-they poof…
First the “wahoo”: I will again be presenting at the Saturday Night Sampler at International Quilt Festival-Long Beach on July 28th! Last year’s Saturday Night Sampler was a blast and it was one of my favorite teaching moments of the year. I loved the crowd there, meeting people from all over the world and feeling the enthusiasm for my topic. If you get a chance to go to any of the IQF shows (Cincinnati, Long Beach, Houston), the Saturday Night Sampler is a must. There will be a room full of teachers, all doing simultaneous presentations in their area. You walk…
Wahoo-Margo Wilson sent a photo to me of our Slice Quilt assembled-thank you! I don’t have detail shots-several of us are still doing finishing work and Donna is constructing some of hers. The artists are (l to rt) Anita Marshall, myself, Margo Wilson and Donna Brennan. We are all members of the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild and we formed an art-oriented small group, Quartz, which offered the Slice Quilt Challenge.I can’t recall exactly all the techniques used, but Anita’s quilt is primarily machine needle felted and includes a pair of her socks (the blue fields)! Margo and Donna’s quilts include Tsukineko ink, fabric…
My Wayne Thiebaud slice quilt is done except for some final quilting and a hanging sleeve. My group met last night for the reveal-what a thrill! I forgot my camera and phone so no photos of the assembled quilt-ugh. It will show in 2 weeks and I will have photos then. My Slice Mates made me feel quite humble-I think the final assembled quilt is fabulous. I am much more pleased with what I learned than I am with my slice.I will go back and quilt in the major elements of the design to nail them to the backing, but I wanted to wait…
I temporarily abandoned my thread shredding adventure with Saw Tooth Star to work on a slice quilt that is due, gasp, next week. One of the art groups I am a part of, Quartz, is taking a Wayne Thiebaud painting (with permission) and a group of 4 of us is each doing a slice (section) of the quilt.This is the photo I am working from. I am working in an entirely different manner than any other piece I’ve done. I am going to “pillowcase” it instead of doing the traditional binding. There will be no border or binding, just a knife…
I’m writing from the depths of thread shred hell and have accumulated what I call “thread shred cred(entials)”. Right after my last post on how well my work with metallic wrapped silk thread was going, it started shredding. At that point I had put in at least 4 shred-free hours when all of a sudden the wheels fell off and I was shredding thread every 4 inches. How could that happen? It was sudden and dramatic. I have spent well over 20 hours meticulously working through this and still don’t have a solid answer. I even went to the Ultimate…