Thursday, February 28, 2019

My New Quilt

My newest competition quilt, "The Value of Violet" is making her debut this week at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA. I am excited to hear how the quilt does, if any of my readers happen to be at the show.

What you may not know about me is how much I absolutely love purple. I have always loved purple, and all of its shades. This quilt was fun because it was all about this one color, but immensely challenging because it was only one color (I don't include the silver, as it is just the background). All dimension and movement is created solely by use of value. There are commercial cottons as well as silk Radiance in at least 7 colors (5 are shades of purple).
This original quilt was a year in the making. It is mostly hand turned-edge applique (all but the pieced diamond corners and outer border). It has significant embroidery and hand couching, hundreds of tiny dots (AKA 1/4" berries!), a little hand painting, and another crazy binding treatment! After I return, I will post a longer post with info and photos about her making, including some closer-up shots of the quilting. Right now, though, I am "tied" up in sunny and warm Daytona Beach teaching at the AQS Daytona show. Life is hard...LOL!

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Catching Up

Somehow, I neglected to share this absolutely gorgeous Sue Garman design that was made by a client of mine. It is all turned-edge applique, and exceptionally well done. There is a good amount of background space just screaming for some very traditional quilting. My client also sent me a good photo of Sue's quilt, and asked me to replicate some of her ideas on this quilt.

Here it is, as I start the "stand and stare" routine. I didn't wonder what to do for very long though.
I quilted this with a single wool batting, and a couple of threads. Because most of the quilt is white, I began with an ecru 40wt thread. The backgrounds and borders were quilted from the top to the bottom. Sue's quilt had the feathered sashings, which I liked, so I used them here. They give the quilt nice movement.
The backgrounds of Sue's reference quilt had a crosshatch, but that was ditched immediately. It would have required marking to get good alignment. I will never mark a red and white quilt without knowing how many times the red fabric was washed/soaked. I refuse to have a disaster on my watch (or at my hands!). I think my backfill, though less traditional, is plenty functional and faster to quilt. 

Because I did not crosshatch the blocks, I put this pattern on the border. It was a bit of hind-sight that I should have spaced the lines all the way from the corner, but hopefully what I did works ok. 
 
I used this neat gadget called a Simflex to quickly space the crosshatchings evenly between the applique circles. Stretch and mark!
 When all of the white background was quilted, then I ditch stitched around the applique, and quilted on the applique swags. The swags (quilted in soft sage thread) have some echo quilting and a simple feather.

 The quilt's backing is also beige, making the quilting show marvelously!


In a few days I will be loading another traditional beauty. I just hope it turns out as lovely!

Happy February-

Friday, February 08, 2019

Templates (and books) at AQS Daytona

Greetings all...

I am teaching at the AQS Daytona show in a few weeks. I have received questions about whether I will have templates to sell there. Here's the best answer I have.

I have preshipped books and class supplies already. It is not possible to ship a box of templates at this point. Furthermore, they are rather pricy to mail and any not sold have to be return shipped at the close of the show.  I do plan to pack at most 10 sets in a checked suitcase. I will not have individual ones because it becomes too time consuming in the classroom.

If you are in one of my classes and know now that you want a set, let me know and I will be sure to have it all labeled for you. If you want to drop by my class for a purchase, please note that I will sell between 4-5pm or before 8:30am only. I'd also appreciate you dropping me an email to let me know that you are coming to pick up.

Hope this works for everyone.