"Balance Check" Revisited

Oh, this was WAAAYYY too easy. I promised to show this TIFC from August again after getting it framed and here it is. The method I used to frame it comes from Gai Perry's book Do-It-Yourself Framed Quilts and was so quick and simple. All it requires beyond a rule and scissors is foam-core board, sequin pins, & a frame.

The nearest inch I could round the top up to was 14 " so I ordered pairs of 14" metal framing strips. The foam-core on the left (under the book) is cut to exactly 14" and I've chalked where the 14" edge will fall on the quilt. I'm always nervous about raw edges, so although Gai does not say to, I ran a narrow zigzag stitch along this chalked line to hold the layers together and control fraying. I fused a label on the back and gave it a quick steaming.

Next, mark the midway point on all four sides of the foam-core and also on the quilt top.

Starting from those midpoints, line them up and secure the quilt top to the foam-core with the sequin pins. (Sequin pins are very short and have a small head.) This foam-core is 3/16" thick and the pins have to go in at an angle so they don't poke all the way through. Work from the midpoints to the corners, adjusting as necessary until you've secured the quilt all the way around. Gai doesn't say how closely to space these pins, but I found I was putting them in about every 1-1/2 inches. When I was sure everything was the way I wanted, I pushed the pins all the way in. The lip of the frame extends out 1/4" so I did a check with a ruler to make sure all pin heads would be covered by that lip.

Now trim away the excess quilt right next to the edge of the foam-core. This was the most nerve-racking part, but all went well. I tried doing it from the back first but found it was actually easier to follow the edge of the foam-core from the front. Steady hands could probably rotary cut this excess off, but care needs to be taken not to cut into the foam-core.

That's it! Now the mounted quilt is ready to slip into the frame. The metal frame (this one is a NielsenBainbridge brand) has slots to hold the artwork so you assemble three sides leaving the top open. Once the quilt is in, slip the top bar on and tighten the screws.

The slot is bigger than the thickness of the board, so you could fill that in with cardboard, or just use these clips they provide with the frame to hold it in place. No diagram so I'm just guessing that this is the way to insert them. (You can just see some writing on the foam-core; I wrote the same info from the label on the back of the board as well.)

They also provide eyelets to slip in slots along the back - attach wire and your quilt is ready to hang. Not only was this quick and easy to do, it is totally reversible. Just loosen some screws, and it can be switched to a different frame, or if I want to finish it like a regular quilt, just remove those pins and add a binding or whatever.

Here's a detail shot of the beading (click on it for a larger version) - I chose to stop with the black and green and call it good. Both this and the full shot at the top were taken in not the best light conditions. On my screen the colors look a bit more saturated than I think they are in person. Yet another quilt I've had trouble with capturing the color accurately.

October Take It Further Challenge

Yes, you read right - this is October's TIF challenge piece - well I TOLD you I hadn't been good about keeping up. The theme for October was "to think about your textile work space. How do you feel about this space? What role does it play in your life?" Read more about the challenge them and alternate color palette here.

This wasn't too hard for me - my "textile work space" is usually a mess, piled with good intentions, inspiration, works in progress, ideas I don't want lost, but which get lost all the same in the chaos. Sometimes the chaos bothers me, other times it motivates me. Sometimes the work space feels like a refuge, and other times a war zone. I envy those with larger spaces, better storage systems, more design walls, better lighting, but in reality, the space works, although sometimes a little awkwardly. I often do an exercise I call "clearing the decks" when I've been bad about putting things away and realize my actual table work space has been reduced to the size of my cutting mat. But about mid-year I decided I didn't want to do that anymore, because that just puts things out of sight and out of mind. I decided I'd rather clear the decks by actually working on the projects piled up there. It's been a good plan, although it hasn't freed up space as quickly as I thought it would. So the studio, while getting better, is still a bit chaotic.

The basis for this piece is the result of wanting to keep using up small pieces of fabric from my string drawer after I completed the blocks for a string quilt. I discovered I had a lot of strings that were actually too short for these blocks, but that still felt too big to toss. I was in the mood for mindless sewing so thought I'd try what I've seen so many others do - randomly sew pieces together until I had bigger pieces of "fabric" that could be worked into a project.

It did not go well. I've never had much luck at this random stuff and the little pieces I was ending up with were not pleasing me at all. I go back to it now and then, having left everything piled on the floor around my sewing table, but it has been really frustrating to see it working for others and failing for me. I guess that's why I keep pecking away at it, sure that at some point it will work, if I just keep at it. In reality, though, I determined that the reason this random stuff doesn't work for me is because of what I start with. That drawer is representative of all the fabric fads of the last 15 years, has pieces both given to me, bought by me and scrounged by me. It comprises fabric from all the things I've tried over the years while I learned about quilting, my preferences, my style. I'm still experimenting, but I must admit I'm narrowing my focus these days. A lot of these fabrics don't sing to me anymore. No wonder I'm not happy seeing such a disparate range of fabrics side by side.

I didn't think the above piece was too bad, but I didn't want to keep adding to it - it's postcard size - yet it needed more. It was when studying it that I realized that it reflected the state of my studio and my quilting history. - a real hodgepodge. In it is commercial fabrics from my earliest quilting efforts, reproduction fabric, batik, my hand-dyed fabric, scrapbag fabric, fabric from a guild project, leftovers from garment making. I'm still holding on to all these different styles of fabric in my stash, even though I rarely use anything but the batiks and hand-dyes anymore. I can't let go and they are part of the chaos in my studio and in my head as I work.

I decided what the piece needed was a bit of sheer fabric with stars because that's the other thing about how I feel about my work space. In there I may have moments of clarity, even the occasional flash of brilliance, have even had moments of stardom - but most of the time I feel like I'm working in a fog, unclear about direction, and when I find direction, unclear about execution, how to proceed.

So I think this little piece is a good way to end up the year. It has told me something about myself I needed to see and make some strides to remedy. I need to keep working diligently to reduce the studio chaos and refine my focus. I can't quite bring myself to say I should let go of some of these fabrics I rarely use anymore. Maybe I just need to find a way to use them up, knowing I won't replace them the way I replace the hand-dyes and batiks. Almost anything can be used as backing, for instance.

By the way, I used a binding on this postcard, which went a bit better than the satin stitched edging. Still, it seemed to take longer than it should for such a small piece. Guess there's no truly quick way to cleanly finish an edge.

December TIFC

I have not been good about keeping up with the monthly Take It Further Challenge. However, after shoveling a bunch of snow yesterday, I decided to treat myself to an afternoon of hand sewing on a project designed to fulfill December's theme of generosity. It just happens to also match the alternate color scheme: 2 reds, 2 greens and a gold - Christmas colors. I've been wanting to work with felted wool and recently ran across these two patterns I'd pulled from Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine, especially designed for felt. Seeing those patterns again reminded me I'd intended to use the poinsettia one for this December challenge. Better get with it!

In the picture above, the pattern on the right is the older of the two, a little needlecase. My muddled mind remembered the poinsettia on the left decorating it, not that star. The poinsettia pattern is for covering the top of a round box or for applying to homespun to make into a pillow. I decided to let my muddled mind have its way since it was the needlecase I wanted to make, not a box or pillow cover, with a poinsettia, not a star adorning it. Both directions suggested making freezer paper templates - you can see I've traced the applique pieces onto scraps of freezer paper. The needlecase pieces I could cut with a ruler without templates. The 4 pieces of felted wool were a gift; the roll of felt behind them is some I just recently bought so I'd have the second shades of red and green for the project.

Freezer paper really sticks well to this wool which surprised me. I tried tracing around the template with a Sharpie pen but then found it hard to cut out the shape eliminating all the black ink. So the rest of the applique got cut out with the freezer paper still on. This really pointed out how uptight I am and prone to working to exacting methods. I needed that reminder that in applique one does not have to be so perfect. I guess I was afraid the freezer paper would pop off as I cut (it didn't) or that I'd accidentally cut into the template (since it didn't have to match anything I could stay away from the template edge). The entire poinsettia design was a little big for the needlecase, so again, I had to loosen up and experiment with placement until I found something pleasing that fit.


Glue stick worked like a charm to hold the applique pieces in place. I found sequin pins easier to use for holding the curve of the stems in place. I expected all the applique to be done with a buttonhole stitch (more muddled memory), but instead, I was instructed to whipstitch with matching embroidery floss; the other pattern suggested using pearl cotton. I have no pearl cotton on hand and in spite of having what I thought was a lot of embroidery floss, the only matching color I had was gold. So I used my YLI Heirloom 100 silk thread which DID match.


The lining piece has a separate rectangle whipstitched in the center - it holds the needles. Here you can see the matching embroidery thread. Sew a snap on either end to hold the case closed.


The handles are just a strip folded in half and whipstitched together. They are pinned in between the lining and the outside once all the applique is done & french knots added to the center of the flower (one can also add beads). All is held together with (at last) the buttonhole stitch done with three strands of embroidery floss.

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. These two shots show front and back when the case is folded up.



I definitely want to do more of this, can see how my favorite beader, Mary Stori, was seduced by it, and really need to get her book about beading on wool. I'd be interested to know how others approach working with wool felt, too. I'm particularly curious about whether I should worry about how badly the dye runs in all the pieces I have, and if so, how to make it colorfast.

You may be wondering how this all fits into the theme of generosity. The challenge said, "I want to ask what is the idea of generosity to you...think about what it is to give..." It's the wool itself that makes me think of generosity, for it was a most generous gift from a friend who took note of my stopping at a vendor's booth to finger the wonderful stuff, remembered me saying how I'd like to try working with it some day. Of course, for me someday was going to be when I got around to felting some of the wool yardage I have left over form my garment sewing days. I think she knew that would likely not happen soon. Her generosity, her gift has allowed me to stretch myself and in turn make something that I will give away. Generosity begets generosity and a gift ask nothing in return. The pleasure is in the giving and true generosity considers the needs of the recipient, not the giver.

Taking a break while moving on

Gee, thanks everyone for your opinions on whether or not one can mix matte and shiny beads. I knew the answer was "yes" of course, under the proper circumstances. I tried so many different combinations yesterday, both by auditioning and actually sewing them on only to remove them when they didn't look right. My conclusion was 1) I didn't like the sparkle in the center when there was no sparkle in the outer areas, and 2) I'd totally lost my vision of how I thought the beading would be done within the applique shapes. So I did a rather uninspired thing - ran a spaced line of black beads up through the centers, almost like place holders. I may add more in, in fact scattered additional beads to check effect, but bottom line is, I need to set this aside for a bit.


Today, on to more constructive work. Remember my April TIFC, "Change?" Remember how I sewed on border strips and announced how easy peasy it was going to be to mount it in a frame? Yeah, right. Once I got home with the mat and frame, I discovered I'd not cut the borders wide enough in one direction. And then I decided I really didn't like the seams. So I removed the borders, found a different green that I have a big enough piece of to more than fill the opening of the mat without piecing, then set it aside while I considered what to do next.


What I decided to do next was my usual - start with someone else's instructions and tailor them to my needs. The starting point was this article from Quilting Arts Magazine, and I chose the method of attaching my piece to heavy watercolor paper. Here you see my background fabric centered over a piece of the paper cut to the same size as the mat. I tried adhering it along the edges with fusible web (the instructions actually said to fuse the whole thing to the paper but I felt my next step would make that unnecessary), but found that the watercolor paper buckled under the heat of the iron. Didn't like that. So I resorted to using glue. I think any glue appropriate for fabric would work, but I used Aleene's No-Sew basting glue. It's not permanent which I think a good idea, but should hold fine over time because it only goes away upon washing.


Next I placed the mat over it and centered my little quilt, tacking it in place with the same glue.


Then I stitched it through all layers. I'd already sewn under the edges of the underlying muslin and now, using polyester thread and a 100 jeans needle, I used a basting stitch to secure it to my fabric/watercolor paper base. I used my hemming foot because in some places there wasn't a lot of muslin beyond the line of stitching securing the edge of the quilt through the batting and backing. This foot allowed riding up on the turned back batting.


Here you can see the basting from the back and how I pulled the threads to the back. I also penned all the quilt information on the back as well.


I used tape to hold the watercolor paper layer to the mat and put it all in the frame. This is a double mat and the frame could barely accommodate the thickness - hadn't thought about it being an issue. I would have liked to have used some spacers in the corners to give a little more breathing space between the quilt and the glass. It would also be better if I had non-reflecting UV glass but this is my first effort at framing a quilt and the piece not very important. If need be, I can put it in a different frame later. More important, I learned a few things, I like the outcome, what I did is reversible, and will try a different approach on my next effort.

Mixing finishes

Should one mix matte-finish beads with sparkly ones on a piece? That's the dilemma I find myself in this morning. The beads around the outside of my TIFC quilt are matte. Now I am ready to add beads to the center portion and my selections are mostly shiny. I found a nice green matte bead, and then a darker green shiny one. I'm torn, worried that the sudden introduction of reflection makes a confusing statement.

So I'm taking a break and having some lunch. Hopefully, my subconscious will work it out while I think of something else, and all will be clear when I return to the studio.

Beading Has Commenced

I didn't have the patience for it yesterday, but I can't delay working on my TIFC quilt any longer. There's an exhibit coming up in October I'd love to have it ready for. I've been hesitating to take the next step for several reasons, mostly because I was unclear about the sequence of events and exactly how I will finish this out. One part of me said I should square it up before adding beads - rulers rock precariously over a beaded surface - maybe even finish the edges. Another part said I wouldn't know how the edges would be finished until I did the beading. Now it looks as if I won't be finishing the edges at all, but putting it into a frame. At any rate, it was time to get off the fence and do something.

This piece was one I took along to Hood River with me, looking for input from my art quilt friends. It was a rare treat to hear what Mary Stori, the embellishment queen, thought of my beading ideas. One she jettisoned (and I have to admit, I knew it probably wasn't right, but sometimes we just need to hear it from someone else), approved of another and suggested much the same you readers here did for the central area - beads or french knots but nothing too flashy. I decided there was too much fullness around the applique for beading or french knots alone to get under control and chose this darker variegated Oliver Twist to do a little quilting, mimicking the shapes in the applique and pulling some of that purple into another area. From a distance, it barely shows.


I'm still a little unclear of how the beading will go in that area, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do in the outer corners, so that's where I started. I was only a few beads into it when I realized I'd done it to myself again - chose a fussy time-consuming task to add to my quilt. But like so much in life, once I established a plan, I quickly slipped into a rhythm, and my lack of patience turned into the old, "Just one more bead...I'll stop after just one more bead, or the next one...definitely after one more..."


I'm actually using three slightly different yellow/orange beads here, reading not nearly as yellow as they are on my computer screen right now. (In fact, all these pics are reading a bit washed out to me now that they've been uploaded.) Beads are a lot like fabric in that you start collecting and before you know it, you're building a stash. Even so, you often find you don't have as many of one color and kind as you need to complete a project. So you find yourself substituting something similar and in the process create a much more interesting look. Such is the case here.

I nearly finished the sections using these beads today, so tomorrow I must decide what goes in the center.

More Distractions and Pondering

Here's the other thing keeping me from my creative journey this week. When I got back from my weekend trip, the yellow plums were ripening and dropping as I had feared. I spend a little time each morning picking up and disposing of windfalls (the first day back, I picked up three bucket's full; today it was not even one). I pick what I can reach standing on the ground, just what releases without pulling. But I could see so many ripe ones far above my head, a few falling as I worked. So the last two days I've grabbed a limb and shook resulting in a heavy rain of fruit. Since I probably will can the majority of these, I'm not too concerned with bruising. I just don't have the time or desire to pick what must be hundreds of plums properly.

I was overcome by a sense of insecurity today. I think it's a combination of working on the Art Exhibit stuff and being out of the studio for so long. I've appliqued outside on my azalea mosaic for an hour the last two mornings, thinking that would restore some calm, but it hasn't been working. I'm just good and unsettled. I got a call that my machine was ready to pick up, and the insecurities just heightened. I wasn't expecting it back this soon. I wasn't expecting him to be able to fix it. I was expecting a call next week to say it was going back to the manufacturer. Would I arrive to pick it up only to hear him say once again he could find nothing wrong and couldn't make it do what it does incessantly for me? Would I find myself in an unwanted confrontation?

He had found something, a burr on the feed dog, but admitted that he still couldn't understand how the thread was whipping back there to catch on it. And again, it hadn't performed for him as it does for me. Well, sometimes it's the smallest things that create the biggest problems. I decided to set it right up, pretend it was trouble free again and do some stitching on my August TIFC.


Here you can see what I decided to do as a first step in resolving my quilting dilemma around the central motif. I didn't like the way the green frame seemed to disappear and got the bright idea to add the same sort of "frills" along the inner edge of it as I put on the inner curve of the feathers in the outer corners. I think I really like this. But I need to do more stitching and as you can see, I'm pondering threads to do it in. I've also set out some of the beads I think I'll be using. I may use some purple thread to outline the applique and fill in some of the space around it, or I may just use black thread. I'm about ready to go back in and work on it some more.

Oh, and as to whether the machine is behaving while doing my free-motion quilting? I thought it was, quilted nearly all along the green frame before it hung up on me. Sigh. Well, at least I got farther than I was getting before I took it in. I'll keep working with it over the weekend, then call the repairman on Monday to see what he wants to do next.

In spite of this snag, this little bit of sewing did more to lighten my mood than anything this week. And afterwards, I relaxed outside enjoying what may be the last beautiful warm day we'll see for awhile. A last gasp of summer perhaps, and I'll take it.

Back to Pondering

Now what???

As you can see, the quilting is done around the outside of my quilted "frame" and I am so in love with it. But as I stand back and look at the piece as a whole, that frame definitely needs some sort of defining on the inside. It almost seems to need a little bit of orange for balance, but as West Country Buddha noted in her comment here, I don't want to lose the contrast of the black around the applique.

Her thinking of how to quilt down that section, by the way, is so in line with what I'd been thinking to do that it's scary! I'm still considering a sprinkling of beads in there too, much on the same order as her french knots suggestion. I was considering purple beads for those spaces within the applique itself, but perhaps some orange echoing the line of the frame. What do you think? I'll be pondering this for a few days and hoping for a brilliant idea from one of you!

Unconfused

More thought, more thread unearthed to test, and a chalk marker helped clear up my confusion about how to proceed on my TIFC for August. This motif is definitely "stolen" from Dijanne Cevaal's Seventy-Two Ways Not to Stipple or Meander but I believe I'm using it in a slightly different way than I've seen her use it. Actually, it reminds me of my birch trees and the way I sometimes applique down bias strips used to form them (see here). I "sketched" the main lines with the chalk, "erasing" and redrawing until I had them the way I liked, then free motion stitched this with an Oliver Twist hand-dyed thread. I really like the way it frames the center design and provides a visual separation between what I added in the outside corners.


I tried a few other ideas before returning to the one tested on the sampler in the previous post. I found a King Tut variegated thread that was more orange than the one on the sample and decided it was perfect. I stitched a few more variations and decided to do the main design in the green, and use the orange/yellow to make those little circles along the inner curves. It is time consuming since, as I noted before, I can't travel between areas - lots of starting and stopping with just a little quilting in between. But I do like it a lot. It's giving the balanced glow I was hoping for and does not overpower in proportion or value the central design. Click on the picture for a larger view that shows the colors better.

Not sure what I'm going to do in that space around the applique, but because of the heaviness of the rest of the quilting, I'll have to do something - it puffs up too much. Perhaps some beading?

Confused...as usual

Here's some of the threads and design ideas I played with today in preparation for quilting my August TIFC quilt. As usual, the picture in my head did not begin to match the reality, and I am at a loss as to how to proceed. I don't want the quilting to overpower the design, yet I want it to be interesting in its own right. The red/yellow variegated thread in the lower left looks too red to me now. I really like the green but is it interesting enough on its own? Does mixing the two add interest or distraction to this particular quilt? I even retrieved one thread I'd eliminated during the auditioning process - that's it in the upper left.


At least I got the quilting along the edges of the applique done, using the green rayon sulky twist thread resting near the top. I started playing with the background quilting idea by sketching as you can see to the right. I think I have Feather on a Wire to thank for my thinking to add the circles along the curve of those shapes. See this blog post where she is adding circles to her wonderful feather design. I like the idea but not sure if I should use it here. Using a different color for the circles seemed to make the other color sort of disappear. Then I thought to try adding them in the same color - the green sample near the top right. That could work well, and can be done as part of the continuous line quilting. When adding a second color, there's really no way to travel from one line to the next. (Click on either picture for a larger view.)

After folding the sample this way and that, and placing it on the quilt top here and there, I suddenly hit upon an idea, but the color of thread is still up in the air. At least I have a cool little sample...

August TIFC

Today's my birthday, and I didn't want it to be just another Monday doing ordinary Monday things. The plan was to pack my bathing suit, a novel & my sketchbook and head for the city park on the lake, stopping along the way to pick up a huckleberry milkshake. Even a few hours spread out on the sandy beach vegetating, interrupted by the occasional dip in the water sounded like a grand way to treat myself. However, 60 degrees and rain does not a fun day at the beach make. So I've done my best to shun the ordinary, and enjoy my day at home.

And that is how the piece above came about. I let myself get intimidated by the tie quilt Friday. I did get it layered for quilting, but then found myself panicking about how to quilt it. It was the old fear of ruining the piece, fear of picking the wrong thread that would either show up too much or not enough., quilted in the wrong design There was even fear that the basting spray would not hold everything in place (that slick tricot interfacing doesn't stick as firmly as cotton does). So instead I found myself playing with these "off-cuts" left over from the fun tropical project here. They were what was left after cutting a design element and had fusible webbing on them. Couldn't let THAT go to waste. I got as far as determining they really might make a decent design, and picked out the black fabric for the background.

Today it just felt right to finalize the positioning of them and get them fused down. This all plays into my current strategy for clearing my work table - whatever project is on top gets worked on. It was pretty close to next (I really didn't want to start that quilting although I'm not intimidated by it anymore) and in my mind is a good fit for the Take It Further Challenge concept for August: balance. (Read more about it here.)

Attaining balance is an ongoing theme in my life, and in my designing in particular. I often have a very difficult time achieving a good balance when positioning three similar shapes. I'm fairly pleased with how this worked out, even though there was a frustrating few moments when no matter what I did, it didn't looked right let alone balanced. Intertwining some of the elements, and the narrow stem-like strips helped create a flow for the eye to follow. Isn't that just like life? We'd like to keep everything separate, but it is always a balancing act with many facets working to keep it all together. Maybe it's all those Olympic gymnastics I just watched, but I found myself thinking of this piece as "Balance Check."

Once it was fused, I suddenly saw how well running beads along those negative spaces could work. It should be a nice link to the vivid quilting I plan to do in the background, something different, interesting ala Dijanne Cevaal, author of Seventy-Two Ways Not to Stipple or Meander. In fact, I realized that my shapes reminded me somewhat of her pomegranate series, a sample of which you can see here. I really admire her stitching and the way she can take a simple shape and keep it fresh and interesting with so many variations.

Will I finish this by the end of August? I doubt it, especially if I add the beads. But considering I haven't worked on May through July challenges, I'm just pleased it's on its way.

TIFC for March Done!

Time to get out your back issues of Quilters Newsletter. I tried the "magic miters" lesson by Ursula Riegel found in the May 2008 issue and it worked really well. This method adds a mitered border while simultaneously finishing the edge of the quilt. I thought my tree trunks would be a good one to try it on.


But first I had to fuse on strips of Decor Bond on three sides of the quilt. Since I changed my mind about where I wanted the border to fall and needed to extend not only the quilting but the stabilizing beyond the top, this was a quick fix quickly quilted up. Once that was done, I squared up the top making sure that once the border was in place, it would cover the white Decor Bond as planned.


I didn't want a single border, but two so I sewed strip sets and cut them to the proper lengths - the exact measurement of the quilt side plus 3/4" (and yes, I didn't trust the directions and tried a paper sample to be sure the 3/4" was correct). Then I cut the miter using a combination of the 45 degree angle on my cutting mat and a triangle ruler.


Next, the border ends are sewn together. A dot 1/4" from either side of the inside edge of the border marks where to start sewing (backstitching). You also see here my trick of using a pad of sticky notes butted next to the presser foot to ensure accurate 1/4" seams.


Once the border is sewn together, the seams are pressed open and the inside edge pressed under 1/4" (which is why the stitching in the seam doesn't run all the way to the raw edge).


Now it is ready to be pinned right side to the back of the quilt. If you've measured and cut and sewn precisely, this will be a perfect match. Here it is sewn all the way around, ready for turning. Well, almost. The corners need to be trimmed to remove bulk, and I also graded the seam, cutting away half the width of the quilt top because of the stiffness of the Decor Bond. I was amazed at how easily the corners poked out, and it turned to the front with the help of a hot iron.


Usula's directions call for stitching close to the edge of the border, but I also stitched in the ditch between my first and second border. I often use a buttonhole foot to guide along the edge of the seam.


When I switched to the outer edge, I changed to a hemming foot which has one side higher than the other: the high side rides on the "hem" while the low side butts up against it. Moving the position of the needle to the left, I could then make an even line of stitching.

I did notice, though, that there was some shifting of the fabric, creating a ripple which I had to ease back the other direction. Perhaps a walking foot would be a better way to go. Actually, if the top had not been bonded to the Decor Bond, I probably would have stitched that down by hand.


Here's the final result. Actually, it's not quite as uneven around the edges as this picture appears. I took this quickly before giving it another blocking. But that is one hazard of this method. Precision is everything and especially with the double border, any wobble shows. Still, I liked this method a lot.

A few things I question, though. I think you'd have to be careful about choosing the border fabric, being aware of the possibility of shadowing through from the fabric and quilting of the top underneath. I also question how wide of a border you could get away with.

I'm sure by now you've forgotten what the key concept for March was that got me going on this quilt in the first place. It was noticing the little things, the small details in life. In my case, it was noticing a peachy undertone to the tree trunks I thought were off-white and brown. And in the process of working through this, I added many other small details. Oddly enough, I don't know what to call it. Usually in the course of making a quilt, if I didn't start with a name, one comes to me, but not on this one. Any suggestions?

Transformation

I didn't get this totally quilted today, still working on stitching around the leaves in the background fabric print. However, I am so pleased with the effect of the black thread in the quilting on the trunks. I finally achieved some of the definition I was going for with the thread painting. For reference, see a "before" photo below (click on either for a larger view):

Hate It When This Happens...

Was pretty low on energy today, for no discernible reason. If I had a hammock, I probably would have spent the entire day napping in it. Instead, I got part of my studio time in by basting my March TIFC for quilting. As soon as I laid it down on that black batting, I realized my border fabric (just peeking out along the left of the quilt or see here in this closeup) was not the best choice after all, that a black border would make all the difference in making this piece shine. Oh bother... At least the border is to be added after the quilting so I still have time to consider this change of plans. How could I have not considered black?

More Stitching

I put in three more hours of stitching on the tree trunks and think I am done with the thread painting. I seemed to be "in the zone" today, and finishing up the moss had a hypnotic quality to it, just circled away without much thought. I felt I was finally getting the hang of it, having learned not to keep such a straight "line" and leaving some holes. I don't think it shows well in the picture, but I used three values of green, working the middle value in to soften the starkness of the very darkest. The very light minty green is the threadlace lichen - I've just placed them on here as they probably will be attached after the quilting.

Kimberly wanted to see a larger view of this piece, so here it is - first before the thread stitching:

And after as it looks today, the jpg cropped to way I think I will trim it in real life, although I have to admit, I really like that tight shot up top. Still haven't quite decided how I will shape and place that overlay of willow leaves on sheer:

Annabelle praised me for my patience, but I think it was more my stubbornness that kept me going. My feelings about this have been up and down throughout the process and I've had to take major breaks from it, both to reassess where I was headed and to gather up my resolve to tackle it again. Looking at the before and after pictures, it's easy to see that the threadpainting transformed a flat plain piece of fabric into tree trunks. But during the process, the progress was slow to come and not easy to see. Couple that with the fact that what was happening on the cloth was not what I'd envisioned in my mind, and you can see why I despaired along the way, wondering if the effect I was going for was really happening.

Once I accepted the fact that it wasn't going to look like my original concept, but still looked like tree trunks, I could better judge my results. All of you who commented with thumbs up at how it was developing certainly helped me reach that point. Once again, I learned that I must see and judge my work for what it is and not for what I hoped or envisioned it would be.

Stitching, Stitching

Here's the other thing I worked on this week - my March Take It Further Challenge. Yes, March... I'm trying to shade my fabric with thread painting to create the detail of bark and moss on these tree trunks, and it has not gone as I anticipated. After hours and hours of stitching back and forth on this thing, I needed to give it a huge break after adding the white thread - see detail picture below. (This was the one color I'd been avoiding because I thought it too stark, but which turned out to be just what I needed to bring out some highlights.) My session this week was to start adding moss.

One reason I let it sit was that I was contemplating how to render the moss. With green velvet? (I thought I had some in my scraps, but couldn't find it.) With more thread lace like the lichen? (Because I'd need so much, I wasn't thrilled about that idea.). I finally went to Ben Franklin to see if they had some fake moss I could stitch in place. I found something on a fine wire base and brought it home, but I couldn't bring myself to use it. Not only would it create too much dimension compared to the rest of the quilt, I found the green mossy bits shed off the wire quite easily. I returned to Ann Fahl's book for inspiration and found it. No more straight line thread painting, but tiny circle thread painting. This is a bit like the garnet quilting stitch (see this post for an example), except the circles are quite small and filled in with stitching. The motion is a bit like the thread lace motion, but for some reason, I'm tolerating it better done directly on the fabric.

Ann warns that this will take quite some time to do, and she's right, but you know me - I soldier on no matter how long something takes if it gives me the results I'm looking for.