The New Generation

Summer is officially here and I am getting so little done.  I had two work days last week, but I only did client quilting on one of them.  I spent some time this weekend working on one quilt, but not enough to keep my head above water.  I must prioritize the kids's needs and wants better and coordinate when they do things, when friends are over, etc so something is accomplished!  Easier said than done.

On Friday, one son had a friend to play with and the other was still at music camp.  It gave my daughter and I uninterrupted time to work on a new quilt project alone.  She picked up fabrics at MQX and Paducah, and all that was stopping her was me determining a simple enough pattern and time.  On this quilt, she is doing the piecing of the top also.  Last year's was pieced by me and quilted by her.  By doing her own piecing, she is (1) learning this part, and (2) she can enter it in many more shows -- more specifically Vermont next June, where they give sewing machines to all junior quilters!  Pretty sweet.

 She has some interesting black and white prints, a pretty ombre purple that came from Caryl Breyer Fallert's studio (a Paducah find), and some solids by Michael Miller that we have yet to stitch with.  The Couture Cottons are very nice solids.

This pseudo-Paris themed quilt has a fun Eiffel tower print, which she loved.  Don't really know how the zebra print worked into it, but it is there!   The other black print I had, and thought it looked rather Parisiene, so we fussy cut the design and ran with it.  The plan is to have a fancy star with a pink poodle (completed with rhinestone collar) as the center block.  It doesn't exactly sound beginner so I best be pondering how to do this simply.

I have done a few other quilts lately, but two can't be shown as they are going into client books.  Here's one from May though that I had not yet shown.  This client (I believe) made this as one of her first quilts.  It has great piecing and technique, and was fun to quilt.  It got lots of feathers and other frills.  Feathers are placed where they will show best, but with the paisley print, it is a waste of time to feather that~

Here's a look at some of the blocks...

 and a few more blocks...

 I have quilts at a show this weekend in Shipshewana, IN.  I got the word that both of them took home a nice 1st place.  The shows are great in that they keep food on our table during the times when it is challenging for me to do the larger client quilts.  Plus they feel my soul to be able to make this type of quilt.

Though I am busy, I welcome the edge-to-edge type quilts.  If you happen to have any tops that you might want an all-over type quilting on, I can definitely take those this summer.  Just drop me a comment or email.

Publishings

My mailman brought me the double-whammy for mail today...a copy of Karen McTavish's new book and a magazine I have been writing articles for which I have 2 articles currently in ! 

The exciting part of Karen's book, besides that it is Karen's book, is that I have a quilt in it!  I was approached last fall about being a contributor, and this is one of my few quilts that has such visible McTavishing on it.  It photographs very nicely.  This quilt has had one heck of a competitive life and has managed to get into some fun other things like this book, the catalog cover for VQF, and the AQS luggage tags too.  Pretty exciting.

 My copy of the July/August Machine Quilting Unlimited also arrived.   There is an article about the quilting of my Shenandoah Falling quilt.  Though the quilting on this one is edgy and graphic, I have pulled it from any Modern competition categories.  As a whole quilt, it is not fitting the modern aesthetic as they want it to. OK, fine, no problem.  It's been moved to an art category instead.  It will no doubt still fall under scrutiny of those Modern pundits that think that they know better.  It does have modern quilting motifs even if the overall look may be more contemporary (as they say!!).

I also have a writeup on piped bindings...and a nice published photo of Springtime in the Geisha's Garden.  I am sending this quilt off to the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in IN tomorrow (it is at the end of the month). Hoping for a nice result there.  If you don't already get this bi-monthly magazine, you should consider.  It comes by subscription, or can be found at some Joann's and some bookstores (Barns & Noble is one).

Frances Benton IQA quilt

I am finally onto the handstitching of this quilt's binding.  This is heading to IQA to be displayed at IQF in the fall.  I was asked to quilt one of about a dozen of Frances Benton's applique tops.  As the story goes, at some point she stopped making quilts and began making just tops.  I just wonder when I die if I will have that many that are actually finished for quilting (versus being in a bunch of pieces, as the reality is!).

My best guess is that this top was made in the late 1980s, or early 1990s.  I am just guessing based on the aqua print used for the sashing and the border.  It's kind of thin, and has painted "calico" on it.  It just reminds me of material I used WAY back when.

When I started on the quilt, I felt strongly that the quilting needed to fulfill two objectives.  First, it should compliment the quilt, and secondly it should be in keeping with the era that I believe the quilt was made. Twenty years ago, quilting designs and motifs were simpler, and more traditional.  Beyond that, time would tell.  I double batted this with Hobbs polydown and Hobbs 80/20 battings.  It gives a nice amount of lift beneath the appliques, and shows the relief of the quilting.  I chose Filtec Glide ivory thread for most of it.  I know in the era, it would have been hand quilted with cotton thread, but this is dull and I just wanted another element to the quilt.  The slight sheen is good.  There are touches of SoFine and Invisifil and monofilament on the baskets too.

 Many might comment that swags are out.  In today's quilting I would most definitely agree.  For a quilt like this, though, I couldn't think of a more time-appropriate motif.  This outer border is nearly 11", so I had to do some magic to break it up a little.  The swag gives a nice visual element, and it plays very nicely with the very linear block setting.  Inside of the swag, I feathered, outside of it, I pulled a modern filler which I like.  The McT has good movement, and is easy to get in and around all of the applique nicely.

So that it wouldn't be too boring, I placed the curved cross-hatch motifs in the corners of the border as well as the center of the borders.  It ties together with the Xhatch in the blocks, and fits the space beautifully. There are free placed sprays of feathering along the grape vine too.  I didn't go 100% overboard with feathers, as this IMHO lacks a sense of design.  Good design incorporates a few key motifs, and then they are repeated to create cohesion...feathers, cross-hatching, and linework.  I think it works; I just hope others do.

 Here's another look at the corner and border.  There are over 500 of these grapes or berries, all of which are outline stitched to give them definition.  My arms are very glad this task is done!

 It is always interesting to see how a block design done in one block will look when there are 12 blocks.  I love the secondary designs that form, like the illusion of the xhatched circular wreaths.

The fabric on the sashings is a very hard type material to work with.  It is a densely printed calico.  I didn't think that feathers would show up on it.  I didn't honestly know what would!  I chose to stitch linear 1/2" spaced lines instead.  The cornerstones are where a little modern flair sneaks in again.  I knew I had selected a fine red and ivory stripe for the binding, so I wanted to bring a little red in on the sashings.  But these things are hard to get thread to show on unless it is densely stitched!  These diamonds are "scribble filled" (ladies lingo "densely stippled, and stippled again!").  To quilt anywhere like this is a complete leap of faith. Seriously, there really is no pulling all of these stitches out!  I knew after I had a few of them done that I loved the effect.

Just a couple more pictures...  Here is a block~ I hope these would suit Frances' image of how she wanted her quilt finished.  I just wish I could see all of them in Houston this year...not sure that trip will be in the cards unless they accept my quilts (and I hear of an award!)...too many ifs probably.

 This is a quick peek at the back.  It is a soft aqua, and looks really pretty.  Not any visible thread other than the red diamonds - just texture.  The quilt needs a very good blocking to straighten a few lines and make it lay flat.  These very large borders suffered from the same fate that many do - excess fabric at the edges.  I suspect a good block should take care of it though.  Given my history with bleeding fabrics, I won't touch this with a 10' pole though!  Red and white...No way!  Hopefully Frances was better at prewashing than I sometimes am.

This is the before picture...I think it looks pretty nice finished!  Hopefully the clients will as well.

Winner and more fun

First off, thanks for playing along with my Clothworks giveaway.  I received more comments than I could practically handle!  I used the random number generator, and the winner of this is Sunny.  I have emailed her. If she doesn't respond by tomorrow, I will draw another person's name.  Thanks again, and refer to the Clothworks American Made Solids tour for more chances to win.

Here's a quick peek at some of the fun I am digging out to play with. I got these fat 8th bundles in April at MQX....They are so yummy, and soft, almost silky.  This is Michael Miller's Cotton Couture.

 In Paducah I got several shades of gray (yea, I know it is an odd choice for me!).  I just ordered some 4th yard cuts of a few additional colors too.  Gotta love Fabric Depot because they will cut a quarter yard.  I just needed a little more depth of color.

Here are all my colors, minus the grays.  I am playing with a HST die for the Accu cutter I also got at MQX.  I won't use this too much, but I think it is great for my daughter.  No knives and blades!

Here is a part (albeit small) of something I am starting.  Love all the colors!...and my crazy ironing board cover doesn't help any!

With 7-1/2 days of school left, I am frantically trying to finish a couple of client quilts.  This is one that IQF sent me to do.  It will be displayed at the Houston Quilt Festival quilt show in November.  There will be several of Frances Benton's quilts there.  She made many applique quilts.  It screams 1989-1990, but I am trying to bring it up a few decades with the quilting, all the while keeping somewhat in the traditional style in which it is made.  I need to check with my IQF contact to see if I can show more.  I have nearly reached the bottom of the 105" quilt.  Now I need to go back and outline all the appliques and do some detail stitching.  There's still probably 3 more full days of work, plus a very large binding!

Clothworks American Made Solids Blog Tour! (and a giveaway!!)

Welcome to the Clothworks American Made blog tour!  I am day 12, practically the mid-point in the tour. One person/blog from each of the US states was chosen to represent their state's image in this tour.  In case you haven't seen these fabrics, they come in loads of pretty colors..

So, sit back and I will give you the short and skinny on my state...Maine.  Most people think that Maine is pretty cold, and they would be right, most of the time.  This winter was excruciatingly  brutal, lots of snow, etc.  I have come to greatly dislike the climate.  Though born here, I have only lived here for the last 18 yrs. I am much more of a southern gal at heart.  Things that are iconic to Maine include the gorgeous rocky coastline (certainly not our frigid beaches!), moose, wild lupines, blueberries, black flies -- just to name a few.

Perhaps you love to shop here...(I do!)

We like to go here and hike along the rocks and explore the tidal pools.  This is the Portland Headlight.

AND...the one last icon that I have not mentioned is what I chose to make my license place to represent Maine...you guessed it, the lobster.  I have clearly chosen the cooked variety, but isn't that what everybody comes to Maine for anyways??!

 My block has a little free curved piecing, and some machine applique.  Those that know me know I am much more of a hand appliquer, but there was no way I was doing all those little pieces by hand!  Here's my sketch if anybody wants to try to reproduce this.  Sorry, he loaded sideways...

My Fabric Giveaway...
Leave me a message and tell me if you have ever been to my state...what was your favorite thing to see or do while you were here?  And could you possible stand the 60-100" of snow we get annually (heck no!!)?...On Saturday June 7th, I will draw a name and that person will be mailed one of Clothworks' fat quarter bundles of this fabric!  It is a fantastic offering, and they are giving away 50 of these - one for each state!  You can refer to the Clothworks link I gave above and follow the remaining state's blogs too for other chances to win this great fabric!

~ Enter only once (duplicates are deleted)
~ Be sure you are not Blogger-no-reply
~leave me an email as a contact with your name

Happy Lobstah-Maine Tuesday!

Published

This month is a very exciting time for me.  If you receive the American Quilter (or AQ as they now like to call themselves), then you will be receiving this very soon.  It has the winning quilts from both the Lancaster and Paducah shows.  I am completely tickled to have pictures of my quilts in any magazine, but top winners in AQ get a full page spread, as well as a write up.  And I have not one of these, but three - for three different quilts!

Here's my Best Bed quilt award from Lancaster, just opposite the BOS from both of the shows.  That quilt is amazing, so being next to it is just plain humbling.  Big Bertha is getting ready to make a trip to the Minnesota quilt show next week  I came very close to pulling her out, but after some discussions with coordinators, I have decided to pull the other quilt I entered (it really shouldn't have been entered; it was a mistake on my part because there wasn't an appropriate category), and leave Big Bertha in.  My other quilt is nice, but this is the more competitive one of the two if I am only allowed one entry.

I couldn't be more thrilled to have received longarm quilting awards for the other two quilts.  In fact, this makes three longarm quilting awards for 2014, for 3 different quilts.  As a quilter, this inspires me and fuels my creativity just to know that my nit-picky, tedious and anal ways are being recognized.  Zen Garden will still be my favorite quilt for a long time.  There is just something about the way the fabrics combined -- call it a happy/lucky surreptitious surprise.  Because AQS modified their entry restrictions this year, Zen Garden will be visiting a few of their other shows this summer and fall.

Kakeidoscopic Calamity took one of the big awards at Paducah, as you probably remember.  Not one of my favorite quilts, for certain, but a fun little thing to quilt (unlike the much too large and too tedious wholecloth I have worked on all week!).  This quilt will be attending the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in IN in late June, along with a couple of my other larger quilts.  Yes, it is a full-time job keeping track of where each quilt is, and when the next one needs to be mailed!

Silk Quilt Progress and Show Update

Before I show any of what I have been working on, let me remind you all that the license plate blog tour for the new American Made solids by Clothworks started last week.  I posted about this a couple weeks ago. My state license plate will be up next week, as will a great fabric bundle giveaway which each of us (that's right - 50 people!) will be able to give to one of our readers.  Be sure to check back on June 3rd to learn more.

So here I am...3-1/2 more weeks until I have 3 kids home for the summer.  My hours of quilting each day will promptly come to a halt.  I will get a little done in the wee-hours of the morning, and on some days when things are quiet, but mostly the quilting will need to be kept simpler and faster.  Last summer I didn't take very many custom quilts.  This approach seemed to work pretty well, if you don't consider the immense financial hit that results!  If you have edge-to-edge quilts you have been waiting to get quilted, this is the perfect time to get in touch with me.  I'd love to hear from you!  I will continue to take the customs, but depending on the size, they will be quilted in order of when they are received, starting about late August.

Last month, I started on a silk wholecloth for myself.  It is about 54" square.  I designed the basis of the quilt over many months, then transferred it to ivory silk Radiance in early April.  I am quilting in colored silk thread.  It is back on the frame for a few days, but I am quickly becoming bored, as it is tedious work, and absolutely everything shows on it!  What I really need is a good dose of piecing...sigh!

I know it will be pretty when it is finished.  It is just at that point mid-project where I see many issues, and I have some other areas that I just haven't the foggiest what to do with.  Another day of stitching, and I will probably have this out of my system, and I will move onto something else.

 

This quilt has some fills that I have eyed and dreamed about using, but hadn't done so to date.  I love the sashiko-style fillwork, but boy is it slow!  It's much prettier (above) when the blue marking pen is removed too.  The thing on the next picture is a bobbin (0.75" diameter), so you have some idea how tiny that section of pebbles and swirls is.

This is a very traditionally-styled whole-cloth design, with a classic 1/8th repeat, and lots of feathers.  I drafted a design that was a 45 degree wedge, and then copied it 7 more times.  OK, in actuality, it took way longer than that, because each wedge is comprised of many sections, but it is symmetric, whereas some wholecloth quilts are less so. ...Not sure why this picture won't center, but Blogger can be a bugger sometimes.

This will be one of next year's show quilts, hopefully.  I have only made one other wholecloth prior to this one, but never really finished that one.  It sits w/o its binding to this day.  I kind of got bored with that process.  My ADHD brain needs the complexity and variation that piecing and applique bring to the projects.

Quick show update...I had three quilts at HMQS early this month.  It is in Salt Lake City, and had an amazing amount of strong talent this year.  The Geisha's Garden took a 3rd, while Rainbow Nouveau which is soon to be retired got an honorable mention and <> Big Bertha brought home a nice big 1st place!  Bertha has more than earned her keep.  She's taken so many awards that I have been able to forget what a complete pain that 106 scalloped edge was to do!!  I also have 2 quilts that were at the NQA show last week in Columbus, OH.  This is a non-paying show, but because it is hosted by the NQA, I like to enter it.  It is a given that we will get good worthwhile feedback from the judges.  Plus, the ribbons are really cool, complete with bumblebee pin! Anyhow, Shenandoah Falling earned a 2nd and judge's choice while Zen Garden brought home a 1st.  Shenandoah may have raised eye-brows in the modern category at MQX, but it seems to be getting a very nice response elsewhere.  I have quilts to get sent out soon that will be at 3 shows in June.

Don't forget to tune back in later this week, or by June 3rd to learn about the giveaway of solids!

Redone Fairies Quilt

I acquired this quilt from my client Maureen recently.  She had another quilter quilt it for her.  As you can see it is already bound.  Yes, this most certainly poses some difficulties, but I will tell you how I dealt with it.  The first quilter did not quilt a single stitch on any of the appliques.  Only the outline was ditched.  They were floppy and unattractive.  This is a twin sized quilt, so as you can see, that large girl applique is not small.  It is absolutely beautiful applique, all turned edge.  It was sad to see how poorly it was quilted.

To make matters worse, this quilt had some of the most horrible technique I have ever seen on a quilt. Here's a snapshot of the backside... The tension is attrocious.  The quilter must not have so much as ever looked at the backside.  AND...she used this metallic thread in her bobbin, which is notoriously difficult to work with, with a white/ivory on the topside.   It just made me sick to think that someone put all this work into a top then a unskilled or beginner quilter made such a mess of it.

Maureen initially only asked me to do the quilting on the appliques.  They needed to be stable, plus, she wanted there to be enough decorative stitching to compliment the design.  After receiving the quilt and seeing the back, she allowed me to (gasp) pick out all of the echo quilting around the many appliques, and requilt it. I did all of the appliques first though, so that there was something to help hold the quilt together.  Over 8 hours of pickout was done, even with this terrible tension.  This echo quilting is nearly every 1/4"!  The sashings had their issues, but they had to stay in so that I wouldn't get any pleats and puckers.  Here's a quick look at one block, after the appliques were done, but before the background was redone.

The original background was OK, nothing too special in my sometimes over-opinionated view.  Had the tension been good, it would have been a mute point.  I'd have left it.  I chose to quilt the new backgrounds with a combination of feathers and other elements.  Now, it just sings.  It has movement.  The girl is completely dreamy.

 Some of the fairies got veins in their wings, while others got ones more like a butterfly has -- with more lines.  I tried to let the feathers give them life, to show their flight.

I didn't add an excess of quilting on most of the appliques, but I hope you can envision how loose and floppy they were without anything.

 Here's an example of a fairy with the other type wing detailing.

 The sashings and their issues are considerably less noticeable now that there is more to look at.  I have offered to redo them if the client wants to remove the stitching.  The tension on these isn't so bad, so they won't be a fast job to remove!  The sashings were done via computer, and the quilter just didn't know her system well enough to do then without unnatural breaks in the pattern.

I stitched this with a pale sea green So Fine thread.  It sounds odd, but the batik actually has this shade in it, and it works better than the ivory or white did.

 This is my favorite look.  The quilt is for her grand-daughter, who must love and dream of fairies just as this girl on the quilt is.  She's almost more of an angel than a fairy.

It's a sweet and playful quilt that I am glad I got the opportunity to help revive.  This task is not for the faint hearted, as it really requires knowing how your machine will tension threads.  Since it is already bound, there is not the usual place to confirm you have good tension.  The quilt unfortunately did not have wool batting, as it would have given these appliques so much more poof.  It is sweet and spirited now, and has so much more movement than before.

Mermaids for Addyson

This twin sized fun mermaid quilt was finished a couple weeks ago, and has already gone home to it's owner.  She is a prolific applique quilter, and I have done many of her quilts in the last couple years.  I have no idea, but I think that this is a commercial pattern.  Anybody know?

 It was made for a 3yr girl, the daughter of a friend.  Because of this, I was asked to stitch on the appliques themselves more than I normally might.

 The background is a fun, freehanded wavey fill, with some bubbles thrown in.  I stitched it in a pale aqua YLI polished poly thread.  This thread and Glide are similar, but I love the way this thread stitches better.

 The appliques are ditched in Madiera Monolon thread.  Since I needed to stitch on every applique, and I wanted to limit the stops and starts (kid's quilt, high use, abuse, many washings, etc!) I chose to do all quilting on the appliques in the monolon also.  Yes, you lose a little of the color contribution of the thread, but to have to knot and bury all the threads, not to mention the 8-10 different shades of thread needed, this was the best choice.  It shows the texture just fine.

 She will be finishing the quilt with a scalloped binding.  It was marked for me when it arrived.   My 7-yr old daughter was about ready to keep this for her bed when she saw it!