Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Update on Visions of Paisley

I can finally say I am on the home stretch!  Visions of Paisley is all quilted and I have added a double piping.  This was my first time doing a double piping, so I had to do my research first.  I took out my Ricky Tims Grand Finale DVD, to review his method, then of course I went to Susan Cleaveland's YouTube page, because I use her Piping Hot Tool, so I wanted to see if she had any hints and techniques I could learn from.  I ended up watching a few other videos, before I jumped in.

I used my Bernina #32 Pintucking foot, because the grooves were a perfect size for my piping to slide through and it made it easy to keep the stitching tight.  I did use Ricky's technique of creating the piping with water soluble thread, so that if some of the stitching peaked out, I could just spritz it with some water.  Luckily for me, I don't see any yet :-).   I am pleased with the way it turned out.  Even with the binding sewn on the front, it is still nice and tight.

As always my pics taken in the studio are with my Blackberry phone, so the shot is a little fuzzy, but I hope you can see how tight the piping is.  I was worried, as I used the same Dupioni silk as the applique in the center of the quilt and you know Dupioni has those nubs on it, so I wasn't sure it it would behave.  But I think it did :-)

Once I got the binding on, (no it isn't stitched down in the back yet), I was anxious to get some of the swarovski cyrstals on.  I lost track of time, it was addictive, I just wanted to see the next shape outlined and the next.  In this picture I have about 600 crystals down and I still have quite a bit to go.


The problem???  If you look at the swirl of the large paisley shape.  it is a deep purple (although you probably can't tell that from this picture..  Blackberry...ugh), but I accidentally used the Cobalt Blue crystals vs the Purple Violet ones, so that means the next step is heating them each back up and taking all 50+ crystals off one at a time.  Sort of like un-sewing....  takes about 3x the time it took to get it on.  Oh well, it is what it is.

I am traveling on business now, so it will have to wait until I return, from Costa Rica.  Oh yeah, I know why they call it a rain forest!!

Until next time :-),
Renee

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

I got pictures this time!

So I finally made it to NYC to the Art Quilt Gallery to see the Kimono Inspirations exhibit.  You have heard me talk about the exhibit and the kimonos that we made, so I won't go on and on.  But I had promised pics that I never got, so here they are....

Hope you enjoy the look see:





The gallery hung them all as designed, draped over a pole, except one.  I thought it gave it a really interesting perspective.  It really does look like a kimono :-)


 It's position really allowed me to get up close to take close up pictures....








They did display a few of them on the stands as originally designed.  This is how they were exhibited at the original show in Somers.






Of course, I had to take a pic of me with my kimono, Pathways, hanging in the gallery...