Happy New Year!

Wishing all of you in "Blog Land" a very Happy New Year!

Thanks to all of you who blog and share your talent in the cyber world. I am for one have been inspired by each of you to try new techniques and new forms of art.

Thanks again for your generousity.

Susan

McTavishing

I made this quilt a few years ago when I was working on my Filigree patterns. This little quilt is trapuntoed with a 6.6oz batting and a Soft and Bright main batting. The background is McTavishing. This is one of the quilts I use as a sample for my customers who want McTavishing in their quilts.

I took time out from quilting to spend time with family at Christmas. Even though we were all here at home and we didn't do any traveling, we had a nice day here. We are used to traveling or visiting relatives on Christmas day. Our son came and spent several days with us, so it was a nice week.

My oldest DD helped me with cooking. That's quite a feat since she doesn't like to cook ;) She made a batch of chocolate chip cookies one day, and on Christmas Eve she helped with the entire meal. I had precooked a turkey the day before so we had only the trimmings to fix. Mashed potatoes, rolls, lemon and basil carrots, scalloped mushrooms, etc. All my families favorites. Christmas morning we had our traditional Puff Pancake with strawberries - yummm!

Today I started the McTavishing on the satin and silk wedding gown quilt. The silk decided to give me a bit of trouble by folding up in a couple of places near the top of the quilt while I was quilting. I spent twice as much time unquilting as I did quilting today :( McTavishing takes a long time to rip out.

I still have to figure out how to fix those areas as when I re-quilted them, the fabric folded up again! I decided to leave them for now and continue quilting and go back to those areas later on. I think I may need to take the quilt off the machine and rip out those areas and reload the quilt before quilting it again. I'm going to try spray starch on those areas before quilting them again to see if I can gain some control.

Overall the quilt is looking really nice, but I still have several more days work on it until it will be done.

Fit to be Tied

Working on a show quilt takes time. I know that, but everytime I start one I realize how much time they actually take. It seems I have memory lapse from one show quilt to the next. The excitement of the challenge takes priority in my brain.

Today I finally finished tying and burying all the stops and starts on the feather stems and outline quilting. I timed myself at one point and the results are:....... 5 minutes to quilt = 25 minutes to tie off and bury thread tails! Of course these are meandering feathers and I had to stop and start the stems at various places. Normally I don't have that many stops and starts in a quilt. This is also a very large quilt - king-sized plus! Today I'm working on the feathers and hope to get to some of the background quilting.

I hope to have the quilting done by this weekend so I can work on the binding. With Christmas just 2 days away, this may be wishful thinking :)

Susan

Susan

Comparisons

In working on this wholecloth quilt, I did a couple of comparison quilting samples with different types of batting before deciding on which combination to use. I want a trapunto look, but since I can't get this quilt wet due to the type of fabric as well as the beading, lace and sequins already on the quilt, I'm going for faux trapunto.

The photo above shows feathers quilted with 3 different combinations of batting. These were quickly quilted freehand with McTavishing background filler. The top fabric is bridal satin with a silk backing fabric. I've used Sew Fine 50wt. thread in the top and bobbin.

I had my DH and oldest DD give me their votes. I'll reveal my decision and the batting combination I've chosen in a future post.

Which do you like best?

Susan

Golden Paper

Christine asked me what Golden Paper was that I had mentioned in a previous post. The correct name is Golden Threads Quilting Paper. It's made by Golden Threads. You can purchase it from their website here or from other quilting suppliers like Kingsmen. It comes in 3 different widths. You use it by tracing your design onto the Golden Threads Quilting Paper with a water soluble marker. You can then place your design on your quilt top and pin it in place and quilt through the paper onto your quilt top. Or you can punch it by stitching through the paper on your design with your sewing machine (unthreaded) to make a stencil. You then use a chalk pounce pad to mark your design onto your quilt top.

The paper comes with instructions on how to use it. I've used both methods and they both work well. With the whole cloth that I'm working on now, I'll use the method where I quilt through the paper directly onto the quilt. I pin it in place and quilt just as if I've marked directly onto the quilt with a water soluble pen. After quilting, I tear the paper away.

Tools of the Trade

I spent the majority of yesterday working on designs for the satin wedding gown quilt. I have so many ideas running through my head on what designs to use on this quilt that I haven't come to a conclusion at this point.

This photo shows some of the tools I've been using to design quilting patterns. I drew that feathered heart design so many times that I can't remember how many times I erased and redrafted it. The feathered heart itself came together quickly since it's a pattern I quilt freehand quite often - it was the layout that I couldn't decide on. At this point it is drafted to set on-point with a slightly curved outline surrounding the hearts and then a feathered filigree design I drafted earlier in the same day.

I also drafted 2 more blocks of the filigree feather in 2 different sizes as another possible design for the quilt.

Most of the tools I use are familiar to quilters: paper - tracing, printer paper, and large sheets of plain paper: pencil, black sharpie, 24" ruler, square ruler, and scissors for paper cutting. The only thing that may be unfamiliar to many quilters is the set of French curves. I bought a set of 8 French curves a year or so ago and love using them to get clean curves when I'm drafting quilting designs - especially my filigree designs.

I never did get around to testing designs on my Gammill, and today I needed to catch up on some housework that I neglected yesterday, but hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow afternoon.

Susan

Wholecloth Quilts

This photo is of a wholecloth quilt that I made for an auction to raise funds for the Missouri Baptist Children's home back in 2004 or 2005. I can't seem to remember which year. It's white cotton with cut-away trapunto. I used Warm and White as a main batting and 6.6oz poly batting for the trapunto batt. The background fillers are micro-stippling, McTavishing and rays. I thought I would post a few photos of the quilt since my mind has been pre-occupied with wholecloth quilting designs the past week. The quilting designs in this quilt are from Anita Shackleford's Infinite Feathers Quilting Designs book as well as from Pepper Cory and Karen McTavish. Of course there are some timeless ropes in there, too.

The wholecloth I'm working on now is a satin wedding gown redesigned into a quilt top. It's absolutely gorgeous with the ivory satin, lace, pearls and sequins. I'm very excited and honored to be working on this quilt.

This week has been spent pouring over every feather design I have in my possession as well as photos of wholecloth quilts on the web - especially webshots. I've also been studying Art Nouveau designs in a Dover coloring book because I love the grace and flow of these designs and think they make a great starting place for feather patterns.

Today I made a paper pattern of the quilt. This pattern will be used to draft the feathers so I will have a plan to work from as the quilt unwinds from the rollers of the quilting machine. I will not be marking directly on the quilt top, therefore I need the paper pattern. Quilting will be freehand or with use of Golden Quilting Paper.

Tomorrow I'll play with the layout on the paper pattern and do a couple of test samples on similar fabrics with various threads and battings to see which give the best affect. Then on to the actual quilting!

Susan

Finished Quilts

I finally got my daughters gathered up and wrapped up in heavy coats and we made our trip to run errands. I stopped by the fabric store to buy small pieces of silk and satin to practice quilting new feather designs for the wholecloth quilt. I'll bind the practice pieces and use them as samples once they are done. We arrived home just in time. The back deck was covered with ice from where the rain water had frozen. It won't be long and the roads will be icy, too.

Here is a photo of the completed Dick and Jane quilt. It's all quilted and bound and ready for wrapping up for Christmas.



This photo shows the back of the Dick and Jane quilt detailing the quilting. I used Mary Covey's Apple design.

This is the finished Mystery Quilt. I have to decide on a name for this quilt. It gives me the impression of lattice work. Any suggestions?

My customer's embroidered snowmen quilt is also done and ready to go home to it's owner. It's been a productive week.

Now back to feathers :)

Susan

Preparing for Winter

Preparing for winter in our new home in central Missouri is completely different from when we lived in the country. We used to cut and stack wood for supplemental heating - something necessary when you live in an area where electricity is unreliable in summertime much less in winter. We lived near the Arkansas border and ice storms were usually more common than snowstorms. Ice storms mean ice-laden limbs that fall out of trees and knock down power lines. Which in turn can equal days on end without electricity or heat or water for that matter. We had well water so when you don't have electricity, the well pump doesn't work.

We have been snowed in for as long as a week with snow storms that dump 8-12 inches of snow on our 1/4 mile long hilly driveway. There was only one way in and out of the property and if you tried to drive down the driveway and slipped off, you would end up in the pond! Not a great prospect and not worth risking. We kept the freezer stocked as well as the pantry for such occasions. So, preparing for winter took some fore-thought.

Now that we live "in town", we no longer have a wood burning stove or a wood burning fireplace. Our fireplace is gas which came in handy last winter during an ice storm that knocked out our electricity for 8 hours. We snuggled up to the fireplace to stay warm. At least we had running water. Here all we have to do is make sure we have enough milk in the house to last about 24 hours. By then, the snow plows had come through and we were able to get out and make a milk run if we needed to.

My basement quilting studio is still working with 2 unfinished outside walls, but to help insulate the insulation, I hung up some of my quilts. This is my preparation for quilting in the basement during cold weather - that and a small electric heater for when it gets really cold. The basement is heated, though, so the heater isn't used often.
Above is the wall with my ironing station and DSM. The large quilt to the left is "Calcutta Eyes" - a painted quilt made from a photograph of my DD when she was 4 y/o. It includes trapunto and machine applique as well. Then there is "Lily", and original design that I made from a doodle - also machine appliqued. The other quilts are some of my landscapes. I have them all tacked up over my design wall right now. Since putting up my table for my DSM against the design wall I find it hard to use. I have to stand on a step ladder and lean over the table to use the wall. I'll have to come up with another option for a design wall - but I have other things to do for now.

We are expecting snow this afternoon, but right now it's raining. I have errands to run before the weather gets icy and snowy.

This photo is our little Christmas tree with some of my hand crocheted snowflakes. The lights were doing strange things to my camera, so I turned them off to take photos.

Once I get back from running errands, it's back to designing feather patterns for a whole cloth quilt! This is a fabulous customer quilt that I am excited about. More on that later.

Susan

Ornaments, etc.

I've been busy crocheting in the evenings to finish a couple of projects. The photo above is a crocheted dishcloth. It is one of several that I have completed over the past month. I'll use a couple of them as "White Elephant" gifts at our Sunday School Christmas party next week.

Here is a close-up of a few of the crocheted snowflake ornaments that I've also been working on. I soaked them in heavy spray starch and pinned them to a piece of cardboard covered in plastic wrap and freezer paper to dry. Today they will be ready to attach a hanging cord to and hung up on the tree.

This photo shows the entire set that I have crocheted these past weeks.

I finished piece the quilt top for Debby's Snowman quilt yesterday and today I'll be loading it on the machine and start quilting. Once that is done I still need to get my son's quilt on the machine and quilt it. I'll do an overall design on that quilt. It's a tesselating star quilt. I made this quilt when he was around 8 years old and tied it to make a quick gift. That was pre-longarm days. I decided it needed to be quilted on the machine before I gave it back to him. It's been stored in my closet for the past few years, but DS has decided he wants to use it again.