Friday, September 02, 2011

Goings On for the week

The week is over. I have had some good work time this week, with school starting. Despite it being a short week (Tues-Thurs), I still had calm, productive quilting time. I have done one customer quilt, and taken in a couple more to get done in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I am frantically trying to get all the last details of the Seaglass quilt finished up. This week was for binding and the sleeve (which is approaching done).
I have the last of the crystals that are being put on this quilt due to arrive next week. The binding was time-consuming, but is so worth it in the end. The micro-piping coordinates with the backing and tones in the sand fabrics. It also stiffens the edge to help hold the edges from ruffling while hanging. I also went to the pain-staking trouble to align all of the changes in binding fabric with where the border fabrics change. It's a nice effect, but took lots of tweaking.

Before we left on vacation 2 weeks ago, I was working on my so called "fast pieced quilt". It was supposed to be designed with minimal piecing so it could be more of a quilting project than a piecing project. Oh, was I so wrong. I have learned I am incapable of doing easy and simple and fast piecing. My mind thrives on the complicated and intricate patterns, and even better when they intertwine. This is lacking a couple more borders still, but you get the idea.

These are some of Northcott's stonehenge fabrics from the Amazon and Maui (I think) lines. They are so gorgeous; I just love them, even more than the Stonehenge ones I used on my Postcards quilt. My heart beats to purple and green. Just a simple fact. A few of the materials have gold leafing on them too.

One more looksee...

I have been helping my 9 year old design and sew a placemat. And my 5 year old is attempting to hand quilt a doll blankie that I pieced on machine. They are having fun, but it's eating into my time!


And lastly, I loaded the silk wholecloth this afternoon. It is only 36" square so in theory, it ought not take that long (famous last words, I know). I have only done this much, and I have things to rip out and redo. The Bottomline thread is giving me frequent fits on this job, making little nests, and bunching out when it should not. From a few feet away, it may look OK. My eye is too trained to want the feathers more uniform and areas of symmetry to be actually symmetrical. I may leave it and opt to fix things when the rest is stitched. On the bright side, the silk is not hard to stitch on, just a bit nervewracking.

6 comments:

Lisa Sipes said...

That binding on your sea glass quilt is magnificent! Never in a million years would I do that!! That's a lie. But I wouldnt be overly excited about it. =]

Debbie said...

As usual, your work amazes me! The binding with the color changes...I would never have thought to do that...it is just incredible. Always a pleasure to see your works in progress. And I'm also glad to hear your struggles. I've been spending hours ripping out some of my work...I find tension issues the most difficult part of machine quilting.

Edna said...

Oh Wow!! What gorgeous quilting!

Lynette said...

I sure do love seeing your projects! What an amazing quilt Sea Glass is. Love the piping - I can commiserate about the fiddliness (but coolness) of having the binding fabric changes coordinate with the quilt areas!

What a pain to have bobbin issues on the silk! I hope it stops doing it for you.

And it's so very, very cool that you're spending time helping your kids do their own little projects. It may take time away from your own quilt work, but it's sure time WELL spent. You will never regret getting less work done in order to be with them - in fact, when they leave the nest, you'll be very, very glad you did! ;D

Desley said...

Wow, alinging the colours on your binding. That takes dedication.

Barbie Mills said...

I love your curved cross-hatching. Beautiful work.