Quilting Development

HAPPY HANNUKAH! This is a rare photo indeed - all of us together. I've been taking lots more photos since I started this blog. It's such a great insentive for me to chronicle my days!

The kids really enjoyed this present - colored glue with paint brush built right in. I love to see them engrossed in creative pastimes. I didn't know it, but I had that craving for art in me all these years. I never hesitated to spend plenty on things that I thought would expand their creativity, and always loved what they made and would help them color. I am so glad to have my quilting outlet now.

Lighting the Menorah first night.

Here's another angle. What do you think?

Now lookie here! I started thinking about that fabric that I hated for the quilt challenge. What if I added a border (which was not my original intention). The NY theme of the fabric is compatible with the big apple in the quilt! Plus I'd be done with it. Then I received a beautiful vase from Tiffany's and the box had this terrific red ribbon that would make a super binding, without any work! But I'm afraid I'm pushing it a bit, folks. I might make a hodge podge because I'm lazy. I want to like what I create, so I need feedback on this one. What do you think?

Tear away the extra stabilizer. Since the batting shrinks, I think it best to bind the quilt before soaking it in water. It'll be easier to quilt and add that way.

Done echo quilting. By the way I used a really thick batting since I wanted the apple to pop out a bit - Quilter's Dream Cotton, second to thickest. I used the same batting for my son's "Wild Thing" (below a bit) and I love the way it made the quilt so antique-y looking when I washed it. Plus it's warm, soft, delicious!

I decided to stitch down the fraying threads and quilt at the same time, so the tear away stabilizer behind the apple had to go.

Driving around the apple.

There it is, all stuck down.

OK now, back to quilting that apple. I decided not to think about the fraying threads, but feel like they've lived there long enough to become a part of the quilt, and I couldn't separate them after that - it wouldn't be fair. Then I started thinking, how do I stitch them down? I decided they needed to be covered or stitching would be a nightmare, and there really is only one thing to do that with - water soluable stabilizer. I stuck it down with spray adhesive.

Flip side at another angle. Don't look at my stove - what would you rather do, walk on the beach or scrub the stove top?

Here's the flip side.

This was the most amazing shell I've ever found. It's like a pearl necklace!

I went to the beach (yes, you heard me correctly, it was cold but lovely) the other day with my 'lil guy and found these shells. I always forget to bring my camera to the beach, since it's right down the block and I usually don't realize I'm headed there until I actually start walking and see where my feet take me. These were my favorites. It's very hard to find those round-y ones whole, but I guess since I was one of the few people who've gone to the beach lately, nobody had the chance to step on them yet.

POX 'N' PLAYDOUGH

The boys are finally over the Chicken Pox. Thought I'd share this photo with you. Zvi (left) had a decent time of it, but poor Shaya (right) had it so bad he had red spots in his eyes and all over the groin. It was so hard to stroke him - my hand just went, "bumpity bump!" Here he was intolerant of my camera and covered all of the pox around his mouth, where he had it the worst!

Detail of the fabric. I hate this guys. The print is too large for a quilt with a 24" square limit. The only things that don't bother me terribly are the black and white signs. The flowers are OK I guess, but I only have 2 or 3 sets in the fat quarter, and I can't imagine spending any more money on this fabric! My only hope is too ignore the print completely and just go... We'll see. Deadline is in April.

A fat quarter of the new fabric for the challenge in Manhattan's "City Quilter."

I found this while cleaning up my sewing area. I jotted down the original idea for the apple still life on the paper where I calculated Daniel's log cabin quilt. I totally forgot about it. Guess I am pretty true to the original idea. Goes to show how much I need to do this piece, and how clear I am on what it needs to look like!

APPLE completed?
I decided to fuse the apple in place, then stitch around it with a pinky glossy thread that looks white next to the apple. I hated it, and while it certainly broke up the red and pink in the upper right hand corner, it was too much contrast, so I needed to soften it with something. The fraying brocade really did the job I think, but it still wasn't enough, so I cut up a piece of pinky glossy fabric that came in the mail that day and made confetti. That took the edge off enough for me to t hink that maybe I'm finished?
The leaf looks great with the holographic green thread - I love it. Sure wish I had a camera that could highlight it, and the apple stub and area which I "shaded" in white.

Current and previous CEO

Original photo for my "Summer Sunshine" quilt. To see the quilt just take a hop skip and jump below. This was the most magical moment, as I also describe under the quilt. I must have taken 30 photos when I saw them like this - different angles etc. This was the first picture that I took. While the others were nice, this one is just magical. I don't think that it's just because I'm their mom, but you tell me!

Here's the apple without the fuzz. The green on the leaf is really blue quilter's marker that will be erased and stitched in I'm feeling a sparkly holographic lighter yellow-green. So far I love this project. I love that my daughter, Leah, is "bothered" by the fuzz, and the negative factor. Since I'm trying to stick it to Diane with the reds and pinks, I enjoy the irritation that it evokes, if that makes sense.

OK now, the apple is fused, and here is a pic from an angle where you can see the difference in the brocade "shadow" and the neighboring pinks. I bought another brocade this week to make a skirt for a wedding and the blue that is falling off of it is so shiny and beautiful. I like the contrast on the pink and the dimension it lends, but I'm still unsure of this. I need to walk away for a couple of more days. Things are stalling, but I do not feel the artist's version of "writer's block" with this one at this point. It's moving along, just slowly.

Apple still life in the negative, so far. Not sure how I'll attach it yet. Clearly there needs to be some separation of the dark reds and the background pink at top right. I had thought of using the red and cream fabric you see folded here, but the brocade that I am using for the "negative" shadow is fraying so much, that it's beautiful. I think I'll fray a bunch on purpose and use that as the color breaker. It'll be maaaahvelous! Or gross. We'll see!

apple enlarged, freezer paper to stabilize, but I peel it away anyway. curved piecing is not my forte, and it's too hard by machine so I resort to my fingers.

apple is too small

background for still life of "DIANE SAID YOU CAN'T PUT RED AND PINK TOGETHER"
Take that, Diane!

trial in "air applique" from a new quilt artist's book - I think Barbara Olsen? Anyway, freezer paper, turned edges, attached to each other instead of to a base.

colored dark to light - as in a negative

Apple still life free hand drawing

Daniel hasn't been sleeping much for Jane, but the minute he recieved this quilt the family has reported a surreal improvement. We quilters know quilts have great karma, well, here is the proven truth of it. Needless to say I am tickled pink about this. Jane is a non-quilter who has been incredibly supportive of me since my obsession began. Before this blog, she actually put up with the quilting details. I am eternally grateful for Jane, probably the most special person I've ever met, except for hubbie of course!

Jane with baby Daniel and his new quilt!

"FIRST LOG CABIN" for Daniel completed 11/05

This is my first log cabin, and as always I didn't follow a pattern. I did buy a bunch of books on log cabins that I had been drooling over for months, and I love how quickly this top went together using Elenor Burns' method of sewing two strips together for the first two colors, then cutting. I don't like how large Burns' blocks are - I feel the pattern gets lost. Another book I purchased touched on this, but wanted the blocks even smaller than this quilt. It definitely looks nicer when the blocks are smaller, but I have 4 kids folks, and needed this to come together before Daniel begins school.

"First Log Cabin" was made from fabrics already in my stash, even though I shopped and shopped. The one thing I knew when I started this quilt was the red jacobean print was a must, and preferably the focus, as it really represented Jane's decorating style. After a couple of months trying to find the right fabrics, I gave up and forced myself to be a bit more creative with my stash. I have lots of fabrics, but not lots of yardage of each fabric. I really didn't think I'd meet the challenge to come up with something that worked from such a limited selection, but then I looked deeper into that special red.

Why did I like it so much?
What made it such a pleasure to look at?

The answer was so simple that it seems quite obvious to me (and I'm sure to you) now. I simply pulled the colors of the quilt out of the fabric. The brown and yellow, the blues, the greens - it was all there. Somebody clearly gave it much thought, and probably had plenty of formal training too. I liked the combination already, so why not? Again I had to fight the voice inside of me that made me hesitate, "but I don't necessarily like these colors together, but I would never put these colors together, but I don't LOVE it." Finally, I shut myself up long enough to just start it, and while the color combination doesn't necessarily knock my socks off, it works, and it works well.

To date, I've had the most fun making this quilt. I was finally able to bring myself to the point where I didn't need it to be perfect, either in color or in workmanship. Most of this was because Jane is so amazingly supportive, and I knew that when I gave it to her she would only think of what really matters: how much l0ve went into the quilt, not what the end result is, although she loves that too.