Thursday, September 27, 2012

I took it off the Wall and am working on it!

Before quilting.


Sky and birds quilted.

Close up of sky.

Hairy back.

Started on the seaweed.
A few weeks ago I blogged about what was on my design wall.  Now that I have finished the collaboration quilt I am moving on to another project.  I decided that it was time to finish my Sea Garden quilt.  I made this during a Laura Wasilowski class at Asilomar, probably in 2006.  We did about 5 or 6 pieces during the class.   I finished my "Lucky Charms" a couple of months ago. I had finished several class samples soon after the class and they are given away. So this is the last class sample I have left to finish up.

I like to tuck threads into the batting layer.  As I was doing the birds, my last el cheapo deluxe needle threader broke.  Hmmm.  At this point I just decided that I would tie off the threads and leave them hanging on the back. When I am finished with the quilting, I will fuse a new back on it.  I will also do a fused binding.

So this is my Off the Wall post for this week.  Check out what everyone else is doing this week.



Sunday, September 23, 2012

Dyeing Class




leftover dye dump

Orange

another leftover dye dump

from the baggies

over dyed a previous dye project

My Tree

I over dyed this piece, added the yellow.

I had a great deal of fun in the Dye class at Quilt Fest!  Anne and Lisa are a great teaching team.  I had brought a lot of my previous hand dyes to over dye.  I like them much better after the over dye.  Anne usually has an extra piece of fabric ready so that the little bits of leftover over dyes can be used up.  She just dumps them onto the fabric and lets it set.  I saved one of my pieces so that I could do it.  I love how it turned out.  I also dyed another tree.  It is going to be my series.  I have 2 others that are in the quilting queue.



Thursday, September 20, 2012

Reveal of the Collaboration quilts

The top that I created.

What Anne did with it.

Anne's top.

What I did with it.

At the show with our quilts.
The big reveal of the collaboration quilts!  I didn't recognize the piece at first.  Anne had sliced and diced the top that I had made, added more strips and over dyed it.  Then she added the silver lizard.  It is titled "Shiny Lizard".

I had trouble figuring out which was up on Anne's top.  When I first turned on the ceiling fan this summer, it blew the piece off the wall and I put it back up and it was right side up.  I was inspired by a sunset photograph that I made at the Crossroads campground.  I cut the curves using a free form technique.  I added the strips of orange and turquoise and decided that it needed the black to define the edges.  It is titled "Crossroads".

Crossroads campground on the Colorado river.
 December 29, 2011
Check out the other artist's Off the Wall posts this week.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Packing for Quilt Fest

My tub full of projects.

Things I wanted to work on, but decided to knit instead.

I decided not to bring my sewing machine.  I don't need it for the class that I am teaching, or for the class that I am taking.  I am taking the dyeing class on Friday, so I should have some photos over the weekend.  i have a shawl that I need to finish by next week and I also have a pair of socks that I have had on the needles for almost a year now. I am also bringing a cross stitch project.  I started it in 1984 and pulled it out last year to finish up.  It is for a clock.  I have finished all the strawberries and leaves, I just need to do the vines and clock numbers.


Friday, September 14, 2012

What a Mess!

The debris pile, before.

I did have candlelight in turquoise blue!

Needs to be re-basted.

If you were the small paddle where would you be?
Under the spare sewing machine!


Tub full of UFO's.
Found the fabrics for class next week.


From a class I took in April.

Goes along with the April class.

How did that get in the debris pile?  


The debris pile after.

I am not the best at keeping things organized.  I try keep things in order, and then I get involved in project and the fabrics start flying.  Then I get side-tracked with another project and the first one gets moved to the corner.  Repeat several times.

I am taking a dyeing class next week.  I wanted to bring some fabrics that I dyed at the Dye Party  in July.  Several weeks ago, I sorted the hand dyes that I had made at the various Dye Parties into a "like it" pile and a "it needs something more" pile.  The "needs" pile I put in a bag and put it in a safe place so that I could find it when it was time to start packing for this upcoming trip to the quilt conference.  Needless to say, it was never seen again.  There were a few other things I lost track of and decided time to tidy up.

First I moved a bag that has a basted quilt in it.  I had started to quilt it sometime in May.  Didn't like how it was turning out, spent an afternoon picking out all the stitches and then rolled it up and put it in a bag.  Guess what was in the bag?  A ziplock bag with the threads that I had intended on using to quilt it.  Including the candlelight in turquoise that I thought I had but couldn't find last week when I was trying to finish quilting the collaboration quilt.

I found the small machine quilting paddle.  I had my 440 in to the shop for a small repair and had the 1080 up on the table. When the 440 came home (all better!) I moved the 1080 back under the table between two rolling carts.  I know that the paddle fell doing this procedure.  I did search and never found it. I just lifted the 1080 to move a cord and guess what it was sitting on?

I dumped all those UFO's in the tub the last time I tidied up.  Those are the ones that I am hoping to do soon.  I need the tub to tote all my crap, er, um, supplies to the the conference.  At least 5 or 6 basted quilts are in there.  Now they are on the spare chair.  I will work on them when I get back.  Really!

Found the "needs" fabrics!  They were down a few layers in the debris pile.

Found another project that I wanted to work on.  I took a class on using TAP at the Pie Plate Patterns Quilt Retreat in April.  I have had this idea for making a piece using my parents wedding photos. When I saw that Lisa was teaching the TAP class, I thought it was time to try to do something with the photos.  The packages were not with the fabric in the debris pile.  

Next I found another UFO that I had intended to finish up late last year.  I know that it was pinned to the design wall once upon a time.  I must have taken it down to work on.  I may have fused a piece or two.

Now that corner is tidy.  And the things I need for the class and conference are in the tub.  Now to print out the supply list for the class so I can gather the rest of the stuff.  

This is my Off the Wall post for the week. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

New Dish Cloth Pattern





I listed a new Dish Cloth pattern today.  Simple Straight Reversible Textures Knit Dish Cloths.  It is available at both my Craftsy and Ravelry shops.  Four fun to knit patterns that have pretty textures on both sides of the cloth.  Only 99 cents for all four patterns!




Friday, September 7, 2012

Thread thoughts.

My drawer of thread.

My selection for the collaboration project.

My rack filled with essential thread.  Also a few
of the remaining Star threads and a couple of
specialty threads that I haven't gotten around to
trying out yet.

The back of the quilt.

I still have a few spots to fill in with quilting.

Free motion in the lower right hand side.

When you can't find a thread you think you have, fill in with
a decorative stitch.


I am still plugging away at the collaboration quilt. Why do I always have to be rushing to meet the deadline?  I need to turn this in at the Utah Quilt Guild board meeting on Monday. As I was quilting along this afternoon I decided that I really liked the Bottom Line thread from Superior that I had in the bobbin. I have had that spool of thread for a number of years.  I know that I have used it before, but I don't remember which quilt I used it on.  I have started using up fabric that I no longer "love" for the backs of quilts.  I know that this piece has no relationship with the front.  But, it is an art quilt and the back does not matter.  And since I only had grey Bottom Line instead of cream, that is what I used.  Pro-the Bernina bobbin usually holds a lot of thread but the amount of Bottom Line on there was fantastic!  I am sure that I would have gone through at least 3 full bobbins by now, with BL in there I just barely switched to the second bobbin full. Con-you really have to adjust your tension since it is a very fine thread. Which also means you need to keep testing on a swatch to make sure it doesn't come up to the top.  I have several different spools of Superior thread.  I also have a drawer of assorted threads. I do like the Superior thread that I have but I can't say that I like it any better than the other stuff in the drawer.

I have seen the Thread-u-cation infomercial by Bob at least 2 times.  The first time was interesting, the second was lame.  It was the same spiel. Maybe it is just me but although I get the Superior newsletter I don't find the jokes very funny.  Tired jokes that I have heard variations of many times over the years.  But I don't judge the thread by the lame jokes of the CEO.  I used to love Star threads for piecing.  I believe the line of threads was bought out by another company and they never seemed to be as good. Very linty.  I am trying to use up the last few partial spools.  I recently tried a couple of samplers of Essential thread by  Connecting Threads.  They are very reasonably priced and I feel they are decent for piecing and machine quilting.  I also have a bunch of Sulky that I got at wonderful sales at Joann's.  I like the rayon for when I want a bit of sheen.  I also have a few spools of machine embroidery threads and some other off brands.  When I was choosing thread for this project, I pulled quite a few spools out.  I didn't use all of them but I did use at least 5 different brands.  I wanted to do a bit of bobbin drawing with some candlelight thread that I was sure that I had in a turquoise blue.  Couldn't find the spool, but I did find I had a bobbin wound with it.  Turns out it was a deep blue and not turquoise.  Time to change plans.

Yes the thread drawer is a mess.  I had left it open and forgot about it.  I think that my "helper" bumped it because I came back to the studio and found it and all the spools spilled out on the floor.  I didn't have time to mess with sorting it out.  I would love to hear about what your favorite threads are and why.

So this is still the same WIP for the 3rd week in a row for my Off the Wall post. I promise to get working on a different WIP next week.