fiberhart

Serendipity and Quilting!!

I spent a lovely day in the studio yesterday, and got more done than I'd have believed possible. First, I got my sleeve for the Journal Quilt done, and the label designed on the computer. But before I could sew the sleeve on, the quilt told me it needed one more touch- so I'm adding that. But I still should be able to mail it off within a week, well before the deadline!

I have been staring at my tissue paper and paint piece for the better part of a month. I've played with adding circles cut from the silk organza I dyed, and liked that effect. Then I played with some quilting designs in my sketchbook. I've picked a name, Summer Suns. I practiced on my warmup sandwich, and was pleased with the design. Had to change needles, though, and it was a good thing I did all this on my warmup piece. I wanted to use a small needle, an 80, because of the tissue paper- but it kept shredding my thread, Superior's Nature Colors. So I went up to a 90 topstitch needle, and it made all the difference. When I was sure I didn't have any problems with tension or needle, I took a deep breath and took out Summer Suns. I was nervous because I knew there could be no ripping out of messed up stitching, the tissue paper would show every needle hole.

I started, and just kept on going- with the Best of ZZ Top playing in the background. It just flowed, not a single thread messup, and within an hour I had it totally quilted. Ahh, the glory of smaller pieces! But, best of all, I got the effect I wanted, and the texture with the stitching over the tissue paper is awesome.

Here's the entire piece, this one after quilting but before the last step was added-



This one is after I'd completed all my stitching--




And, some closeups--





If you can't tell, I used Misty Fuse to fuse some of the silk circles on before I started quilting. Then, after I'd quilted the piece, I fused on the rest of the circles, and quilted with multiple lines around those. So some circles have quilting over them, some you can see the quilting through the circles. This was a wonderful exercise in transparency!

I'm going to fringe out the red backing, and go see my former drawing teacher at her gallery tomorrow- hoping we can figure out a way to mount this onto a stretched canvas. With the tissue paper, I think it needs that- and, I'm hoping it would make it more saleable if it can be hung more like art than quilts.

Here's a good reason to take pictures of your work as you go- I didn't even see the white corner until I got the pictures on the computer. I've since gone over it with red paint, so it doesn't stick out. And when I do this again, it will be indoors with my heat lamps so I don't have to worry about tacking the fabric down against the wind.

One down, two to go- and those will both be discharge pieces.