Thursday, August 28, 2008

Slightly More Exciting


I finished quilting the tie quilt today, and I have to tell you, the conservative in me wasn't altogether sure about that thread choice. Here you should be able to see how it varies. (Click on any picture for a larger view.) When you're quilting through tightly woven hand-dyed fabric and silk, there's no taking out of stitches and doing over. It's next to impossible to get rid of the needle holes. So changing to something else wasn't an option, even if I had a better idea, which I didn't.


Let me also tell you, quilting nice perfect circles is not easy. I fear if Allen were still with us, he would be pointing out numerous places that should be redone. But he's not, and this isn't for competition, so the less than perfect quilting stays. On this full circle block, I decided to do a spiral in the center, starting in the upper left quadrant where it wouldn't show. I didn't want all those starts and stops and having to line them up. I think it worked rather well.


The color's not totally true on this since I took it without a flash, but I wanted to show the overall effect of the quilting, which I like. I think I'll make my peace with the thread color eventually - already it is not bothering me nearly as much as when I started. When I spread this out to take the picture, I suddenly thought how cool it would be to add lines of beads between the rays. That background area is wider than the rays and could stand some stitching. Beads really appeal as they would add additional interest and shine. Well, I hadn't planned on it, but I suspect now that I've thought of it, I won't be happy until I add them. And here I thought I would finish this this week...

5 comments:

The WestCountryBuddha said...

I like the photo without the flash because you can indeed see the quilting and brilliant it is too! It's altogether quite an amazing piece of work.

Lindsay Jean said...

I agree - the quilting shows up beautifully here and it really adds to this already gorgeous top. You do such great work!

The Idaho Beauty said...

Thanks, you two! Sometimes we are too close to our work to see anything but its shortcomings. I'm liking this quilt more and more, and your comments have something to do with that...

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

Hi,
My ties have arrived and I'm wondering what size to do. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel and do anything different but I had thought about doing the background in shirting.
How big do you think I can go and still get all the spikes our of one tie?
All info gratefully received....

The Idaho Beauty said...

Feather, my blocks are 6 inches, but I'm sure you could go 8 or even ten without a problem. Once you open up the ties and removed the stabilizer, you will be amazed at how much fabric you have to work with. On most ties I was able to get a set of points, at least one quarter frame and a center. If you back the fabric with tricot interfacing, you don't have to worry about cutting on the grain unless you want to.