Wanted Kaufman Radiance PFD

If you have any Radiance PFD that you'd be willing to sell, please email me at msolomo1@maine.rr.com.

Kathy Molatch...you left me a comment on my last post but I cannot reach you via blogger. Please email.
Thanks

Fabric Nuances

I have been busily quilting away on a client quilt, but I sneak time to work on the binding of my next show quilt which will debut next spring. I have envisioned a binding similar to the one on the above quilt, with quilted scallops, though I want it a little bit different than this one too. The scallops (100 of them to be exact!) are made from cottons and silks and are piped with dark purple silk Radiance fabric. They are quilted on the longarm before getting the backing and piping on my domestic. Fast forward about 25 hours or more, and these are the result. Some call me patient. Some just use the word "crazy". Take your pick. Depending on the day, I use either.

The scallops are stitched to a mounting fabric which will have a facing used to secure to the backside of the quilt.

Last week, while playing with the almost finished quilt, I decided that the addition of the crisp white to the "binding" would look really awesome. My plan is to make a leaf shape from white to put between the lavender scallops. The original quilt at the top has quilted scallops with prairie points (constructed the traditional way). 

The only problem with this plan is that I don't have enough of the pure white silk Radiance, and my favorite fabric in the world has been discontinued. White batik could have been substituted, but...you know how it is when you get a thought into your head. I just HAD to have the shiny fabric. I love silk that much!

I went to the internet and scoured it for dark, hidden sources for Radiance. They are still available, but they are getting harder and harder to find, and the numbers of colors available lessen daily. I located a silk-cotton satin on Etsy, and ordered a couple yards. When it arrived, I was ecstatic because the hand and appearance of it was that of Radiance. But...and there is always a but...when I compared it to the white Radiance, it was most definitely a slight ivory and not pure white (sure wish I'd done this before ordering another 5 yards, but that is exuberance for you!). The ivory is not acceptable for this quilt. Perfect perhaps for a whole cloth quilt, someday.

(new mystery silk-cotton satin on left and pure white Radiance on right)

My first thought was to somehow bleach this to white. Those who dye knew better, but I tried anyway. I did not just throw the 2-yd cut into bleachy water, mind you, I only used a small swatch. I also used a colored piece too as a control -- curious to see what my bleach would do. The results below are counter-intuitive. While the taupe silk blend did lighten slightly, the "white" actually darkened to a more cream color.  It did not get lighter whatsoever.

I was going to be on to Plan B.

Plan B means going to a fabric that I am unfamiliar with, but that I think will probably work acceptably. What say you?...Bridal satin.

I went to Joann's today and got a yard of good quality bridal satin. There were many colors and weights to compare to my swatch. I have only quilted on polyester satin a couple times, but I have no reason to think it won't work fine. I do know others who have used it.  In the end, the color is the best choice. See below...

 (bridal satin)

(white bridal satin on left, not-so-white silk blend on right)

The sheen will be nice and the color is perfect. When I finish off a client quilt mid-week, I will load this up and make some quilted "leaves" so that the binding can be finished. I am so anxious to get this quilt finished -- I love it THAT much! "Value of Violet" will debut at its first show early in 2019.

Twins

Near this time last year, I started on a small 40" whole cloth quilt with the hope of finishing it by the December 1 deadline to enter it at spring Paducah. It was the second quilt I will show in this post, in green silk. Long story short, in about October I felt that it was having insurmountable issues that I did not want to battle. I had used white batting despite the quilt having a black backing fabric and there were lots of batting pokies. I also chose a daring black thread for much of the quilting, and highly contrasting threads are difficult to execute cleanly.

I pulled a piece of peach silk from my collection (that is the correct word if you don't want to be viewed as a hoarder, which is really more appropriate when discussing how I "collect" silks). I marked the same quilt design as the green quilt and decided to quilt a second whole cloth, this time with matching thread. In November of last year I was nearly done, but I was so PO'd with part of the binding which just didn't lay properly, that this quilt too went into a bag.

The upshot of these not-so-fun adventures is that there was no Paducah entry for 2018.

In the late spring of this year, the magazine I have written for for almost 5 years (Machine Quilting Unlimited) decided to stop production, leaving my writing days in limbo. I had just about completed an article about making a traditional whole cloth quilt, and it used both of these quilts, as well as my 2 previous quilts. When one door closes, another opens. I quickly contacted AQS to see if they might publish it. The rest is history because it went to print in the last edition of their magazine. Somewhere in that process, I decided to rip off half of this binding and fix it. The quilt went to AQS in KY for photography for the article and has been there since, attending their summer/fall shows. It has yet to ribbon, but the finished quilt is pretty and up to my standards.

Here is Persistent Peach.

 It is stitched with 40wt poly threads and 100wt Invisifil for small scale details. When I was done, I added a detailing in a rose 30 wt silk thread (not in these pictures) using my domestic machine. Many of the key motifs were outline stitched.

 It was finished with a couple dozen hot fix pearls, keeping the detailing classic and simple.

 Persistent Peach was the second of these quilts stitched, so I chose to do a few things differently from the first, which I will show in a minute. The basic frames and feathers are the same, but fills are different. I love how the wider point crosshatch plays with the dense box fill. Scale differences are so important with neighboring fills.

 Here she is hanging at fall Paducah. The judges comments suggest it didn't do well because it was in the incorrect category. With no better or more appropriate category for the quilt, I chose "Art". It turned out to be large, with over 50 quilts, and apparently a poor choice. Wish that those who juried had caught this. Oh well. The upshot from their comments is that it is well made.

The second quilt (green one) is named Persistence. I probably should have named it "Crazy Bat just couldn't get me right, but here I am anyway". It was at MQX Midwest last week, and came home with a sparkling 1st place ribbon. Looks like despite my initial worries, I did something right on it.

If you scroll back a few posts, I did document how I finished this binding -- a definite first and last for me. It was fiddly, and more work than I really wanted. What better place to try something different and untested though than a small quilt that you are somewhat uncommitted on anyway.

 You can notice the differences in the quilting between the quilts, even though the main "bones" are similar. In the end, I love the effect of the black thread. I added 30wt silk black thread detailing on this quilt too. It is heavy enough to reinforce the frames.

 In retrospect, I wish I'd done all the quilting in black thread, but that's experience talking. Next time...

One of my hurdles on this quilt was the center. I think it was quilted and unpicked 3 times. Here is the original. It was removed because I couldn't get the star centered.

I think I requilted the star at least one more time before realizing that something was amiss.

Plan B is below. Yes, I know the circle is not quite at the center. Damn. THAT quilting is not being removed though. I was starting to see damage on the fabric. I searched for a broach to stitch on, but they all seemed bulky.

 Plan C involved appliqueing a circle to the quilt, falsely creating the center where it belongs. I know that this is technically not a whole cloth any more, which is fine because I have the peach quilt which is. At MQX, this was entered in Small Wall. Often the presence of another color on the binding disqualifies it from whole cloth anyway.

 Crystals were added around the circle to hide the fact that it is applique, and to draw the eye to the center.

Here's the crazy edge...

I am glad that the two quilts are done. Persistent Peach will be at AQS's Virginia Beach show next week, while Persistence is at PIQF the following week.

The end of Summer (and a great Dahlia quilt)

My kids are now back to school. When summer arrives, it always seems like I will not possibly manage 10 whole weeks with everybody under one roof. Then, 10 weeks blow past in the blink of an eye. I have done some work over the summer, but mostly in the early mornings while everyone slept.  Since we went on vacation the first 2 weeks they were off, it has been nearly 2 months of just doing things around home. The summer has been warm, which I do love. It lets us go to the beach more often. Maine beaches are only palatable when it is over 85. Two of my kiddos still love to wander around with me. The 16 yr old thinks I'm old and inappropriate to be seen with - except for the many driving hours we have had to do in pursuit of his license. THAT is as painful for me as it is for him probably!

This week dealt us a big blow. On Sunday I realized our oldest cat (who was only 10-1/2) did not eat. We determined that she'd barfed Saturday's dinner (a kid failed to relay that info...after all one cat puking hardly constitutes an emergency until she refuses food the entire next day). On Monday she went to the vet in the early morning. At this point, I was very surprised she was as sick as she'd obviously gotten overnight. My husband objected when I told him I thought she really was on her way out, and we ought to keep her home. He took her anyway. During the day, I stopped by with the kids. The vet said Sally had improved, but she had no idea what was wrong. In the late afternoon, she called to say we needed to make a decision. THAT decision. Sally had a siezure, and her body was shutting down. I feel so bad for not demanding she stay at home to go through this around people that care for her. Thoughts of her in a cage, with tubes in her, and dogs around her makes me cry. Monday evening, Sophie and I went to see her for the last time, and to bring our girl home for burial. I've never seen my kid cry so much. It was a wretched day. sally had become so much Sophie's kitty.

The next 2 days were hot beach days. I was trying to keep my kids busy, hoping some time away and together would help to heal the sadness. The beach is our happy place.

 It was a "plenty of ice cream" kind of week.

 Even still, it is moments I catch like this that tear at my heart-strings. Clearly she is still processing this loss. As a parent, I want to protect my kids from the  heart ache life brings. I'm not ready for her to lose her innocence, but a small piece of it disappeared this week.

Fortunately, I was 95% finished with this Dahlia Dinner Plate quilt belonging to Jackie Kunkel when our world caved in this week. It was easy to wrap up on Tuesday morning. It is a crazy-complex Judy Niemeyer design that will be released in the coming months. Jackie's rendition of it is soon to be photographed and become their pattern cover!

 I chose a combination of freehand designs and template patterns.

 And of course, some feathers!

 The trick with quilts this complicated is always figuring the most expeditious way to quilt it - ditching areas that need it and catching the fill patterns at the same time.

 It is stitched in 40wt Glide thread in gray, Surperior Magnifico in cranberry, white (brand???) and a pale pink YLI polished poly. All of these threads look very comparable. I also double batted this with 80/20 and wool to show the texture.

 It is hard to tell, but some of the fabrics have cute kitty faces and mouse shapes. The backing has fish bones. It was probably a very good thing I was mostly done before the issues with our cat happened.

The back shows the texture very nicely.

 These fabrics are a soon to be released collection Jackie has with Island Batik...I'm sure she'll chime in and tell me which fabric collection it is. I can't remember.

Have a great Labor day weekend, and find something nice to quilt!

Summer

With just 3 weeks left of our summer break, each day passes and I wonder what minuscule morsel of productivity I will get that day. I think my brain needed the break, but I really hoped to be further along on several projects. I have quilted a few quilts, one was rather large, but I still feel like I usually do more. I have been getting ready for 2 teaching jobs, one this month at Mancuso's World Quilt show in Manchester, NH and MQX Midwest in September in Springfield, IL. Getting ready always takes longer than it should - cutting fabrics, battings, backing fabric, making folders, etc finding out what you did not order...

Here's one baby quilt done back in late June and never shared... 

 Simple and sweet.

 Here's another of June's finishes...

I decided to load this absolute monstrosity (96"x124") in the summer, against all rules of quilting large customs while my kids are home. It was mostly quilted between 6am-10am, or on the weekends. Summer at least affords them sleep time. Not so much for me though...

 It is the Neimeyer Bali wedding star, beautifully pieced by Anna. I double batted this quilt so as to show off the elegant quilting.

 Quilting is done with beige, tan and a couple of colors of thread on the stars.

 It was on my frame about 2 weeks - an incredible number of hours!

 The owner was delighted, which is all that matters in the end.

 I have another Neimeyer quilt coming my way next week from Jackie Kunkel. When I get back from teaching next week, I will get going on it. It is about 1/2 the size of this beast though!

This next quilt was done last week, and the owner will be here at the end of the month to collect it. She's always challenging to quilt for because I know she does not prefer dense quilting. I'm not very good at keeping the density NOT dense. I just love the look of very dense stitching.

 It is a combination of linework, crosshatching and simple lightly-done fills.

 In June as soon as school got out, we took off for Jamaica for 11 days. We spent a week on the west coast, staying at a cliffside resort.  My kids got to jump into the turquoise water every day from a variety of heights up to about 15ft. He's my dare devil.

 Nice sunsets...lots of heat and humidity (just the way I love it).

 We spent 4 days in Montego Bay too, closer to ziplining, tubing, snorkeling. The kids also parasailed, played in the surf, etc. Hard to go wrong. It is a very happy, though poor place. I can easily see how people go there and stay though because it is beautiful.

Over the last 3 weeks, I have tackled painting 4 rooms in our house. Updating has been slow to happen over recent years.  Sophie's room is now aqua (there's her growing wall of fame).

 The powder room is a happy lavender.

 The kid's bathroom is green (though this makes it look much more chartreuse than it is. The half-peeled fish wallpapers that I put up when my oldest was one are now a thing of the past.

 And, his room was painted too. The last painting was 5-1/2 yrs ago when he was in 5th grade. Somehow, the kelly green walls, toy box and soccer wall stickers were slightly outgrown. The turquoise walls are much prettier (and the curtains are now a plain black panel drape, also much nicer than these faded gray ones.

On top of a little quilting, beach outtings, travel out of the country and painting, I can only say that I am still working on a couple of show quilts. My Value of Violet is finished with the quilting, but a full reveal will wait until the spring when it goes to its first show. Suffice it to say that I am pleased as punch with how it looks and am starting to think about how to bind it.

Hopefully your summer is just marginally more productive!