What do you see?

In You Can’t Go Home Again, fellow “Twelve” Karen has written about returning, as an adult, to the home you grew up in. Somehow you see things differently. With recent events, I have been recalling visits to my grandmother’s house. In my lifetime, she lived in a four locations but the modest decor rarely changed. Amongst her wall ornaments was a simple black and gold cut-out stencil - a kind of optical illusion that I remember squinting at as a child. I transferred the image to fabric using Shiva paintstiks with a freezer paper stencil. What do you see?
  
And yes, I did consider using this as the basis of my “illumination” 12×12 quilt which is due on 1 August (US time). After trying out some quilting (click on the first version above) I decided against it. I quilted around the “blobs” (which is all the Laundry King can see) and experimented with some “grid” quilting but the remaining puffiness bugs me. Besides, plain black fabric catches lint and dust and is a pain to photograph…

For Marie

Back in the early 80s, when I was in 10th grade, I made my first trip overseas and travelled to New Caledonia on exchange with my French class. I stayed with a wonderful family for three weeks and my billet came to New Zealand to stay with my family for a month. Although I have never returned to Noumea, Fabienne and I have remained in regular contact and have seen each other many times including a memorable trip to South America together in 1993.

Anyway, last month Fabienne gave birth to her second daughter - Marie. This exciting news was a very good reason to finish off this quilt:


I was very happy with the heart vines in the centre that I quilted in variegated pastel thread in April. With some very generous guidance from Patsy Thompson, I quilted the balance of the quilt in white thread with a plume filler design. Despite some tension troubles, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. Now off to the Post Office…

Water Quilting

The effect is subtle but I’ve started quilting one of one water-shibori pieces:

Stripe Tease

Here’s a peek of a quilt that I have been working on this weekend. Quarter inch (or less) quilting with the walking foot. Up and down, up and down, up and down…

These are fabrics I dyed with my sister Delia.

Lovely Lotus

At last I have finished quilting Kaffe Tapestry. I’ll post some photos once the binding is on.

In the meantime, I can report that I opted to use the floral motif in the Kaffe Fassett border fabric as my quilting guide. That is, I quilted around each flower shape. Some of the petals seem lotus shaped which reminded me of the beautiful lotus flowers that Erica and I saw when we did a guided tour of the Royal Botanic Gardens earlier in the year.

Off now to see how much binding I can get done before tomorrow’s Power Stripping workshop.

Thoughts on quilting bed quilts

After 15+ hours quilting scroll vines on a 240cm x 240cm (94 x94″) bed quilt, I remember why I’ve always favoured more forgiving all-over motifs when quilting bigger quilts. I quilt with my Bernina 150QE which does not have a very generous harp/throat size. I also prefer using 60/40 poly wool batting which adds a lot of extra weight to the quilt. Bulky, heavy quilt + small throat + a vine motif involving long, smooth, sweeping movements makes for a challenging combination - especially in the middle sections. I’ve pretty much finished quilting the centre panels now but still have the 10″ borders to go. Being on the edge, they’ll be much easier to handle but there’s still a lot of area to cover. All I can say is that commercial machine quilters earn every cent they are paid!

Scroll Vines in Progress

Quilting of Kaffe Tapestry is under way. Much as I like the heart vine motif, I decided that the quilt needed something a little more whimsical so I am doing scroll vines, also covered on Patsy Thompson’s instructional DVD Vines & Leaves Volume 2. Click the image to enlarge.

Practising Patsy’s Heart Vines

Ever since I received a surprise copy of her Vines & Leaves Volume 2 instructional DVD from Patsy Thompson earlier in the year, I’ve been planning on incorporating a vine or two into a quilt when an appropriate opportunity presented itself. Kaffe Tapestry seems like just such an opportunity. However, before I commit myself on such a large quilt (approx 235cm x 235cm - 92″x92″), I pulled out a baby quilt top that I made ages ago for a little free motion quilting practice. It’s a little wobbly in places but I am pleased with the results. Click the quilt to see a close up.

For Charity

It took me way too long a while, but I’ve finally completed the quilting on my charity quilt for Quilt Camp this weekend. This was a quilt top made by some high school students in a design exercise. It was a good opportunity to practice some new (to me at least) free motion quilting techniques.

  

Free & Easy

Long time readers may recall a design exercise that I did with some high school students back in 2006 to create a bright quilt top. My plan has always been to quilt it up and donate it to charity. With Quilt Camp (which collects challenge quilts for Camp Quality) just around the corner, it’s time to knuckle down and do some quilting.
  
I decided to take this opportunity to practise some free motion filler patterns and also some “scroll vines” from the Vines & Leaves Volume 2 DVD by Patsy Thompson. I’m using up some variegated rayon thread that is not nearly as nice to work with as King Tut but I’m pleased with some of the results.