Thursday, June 11, 2009

busy....

Working full time is really interfering with my sewing time. I have been getting some things done though -



This is a baby quilt that I started the blocks for a while ago - I put the blocks together and then gave them to a friend to finish because she liked them. I've finished the quilting off for her and put the binding on. Such a simple pattern (it was in a magazine of baby quilts, the name of which escapes me at the moment) but it is so pretty.

I've also been quilting like crazy to finish this for the RNA show. I've struggled with the quilting on this for a long time - so it has been unfinished for a few years now.

I came across Patsy Thompson's quilting - feathers, hyperquilting, lots of colour! Just the inspiration I needed. I think I'll try to find an Australian supplier for the DVD's - they look like a great investment.



So this is my first try at feathers on a proper quilt - I've done them on practice pieces and been less than happy, but I decided to go ahead with them anyway on this quilt. I'm not a big fan of marking, so the only marking has been for the spines - all the feathers are free hand. Surprisingly, they look symmetrical and even.
Hyper quilting is what Patsy calls adding another thread colour and adding another element to the quilting - I've done the feathers in a purple thread, then added pink and orange swirls on top of it. I like the effect of the multiple threads, but I'm not sure if I like this quilt any more. I can't decide if it's good, or if it's just ugly. Maybe i'm just tired of looking at it. (plus I have a migraine, so maybe my judgement is affected).


sThis is my fancy, jerry-rigged quilt hanging system. You need to get quilts vertical to get a decent photo (for show entries) so I have a pole on my lounge room wall and use trouser hangers to clip things up. You can use the pole to hang things on a sleeve if the quilt has one. I usually add one to my quilts, even if they're not going in a show, in case I want to hang it up one day.