Dream Big

This year my chosen word is "Focus" and so I am going to use that as my reason for being so quiet this first quarter...lol...  yeah that is my story and I am sticking to it... :-)

No seriously, I have been very focused the first 3 months of the year creating art.  My first series for the year is called "Dream Big".  It was inspired by the anniversary of man's first walk on the moon and Misty Copeland being named the first female African American Principal Ballerina for the American Ballet Theatre.  The main feature of the series, you have already seen the beginnings of and it still needs it's final touches, so I won't include it here.

Instead I want to share the supporting cast.  6, small, 19" squares....  I made all the tops first, because I wanted the energy, the emotion to flow from one piece to another.  Then I quilted them all and then of course I embellished them.  My husband thought it was an assembly line..  but for me it felt like I was in a zone..  as if they were all one piece...  connected in some way.  and I don't think I could be happier.  It is the first time I have worked like this.  Not my first series, but the first time I moved freely from one to another as I created them.  I would get so far on one and stop...  couldn't figure out the angle of the dancer or the color or type of clothing, so I would pick up one of the others, until bam, I knew what the other piece needed.  The same went for the quilting and which motif I would use where.

So without further adue...  here they are.  Only the first 2 have names that I am happy with at the moment, but that is ok..  it is part of the process....

Reach for the Moon

Leap of Faith

 On Top of MY Game

Giving It All I Have

Why Not

Yes I Did!  

I am still playing with ribbon color and ribbon length, so you can still see the pins in this pick...

I hope you have enjoyed a peak into my last 3 months...  I so enjoyed working on these...  It was actually a creative high....  This week I posted the first 2 in a couple of quilting groups on Facebook and the response was overwhelming.  It was really humbling.  Actually had a few people reach out to inquire about buying a piece.  Yes, it felt good....  I love it when others love my work as much as I do.

In addition to these pieces...  while I waited to decide how to embellish them,  I started on my next series...  the focal piece is almost done.  All quilted in fact...  and I have sketches for the 6 smaller pieces done as well.  Not sure I will go underground again as I create..  I never plan, I just do as I feel...  which is why it is important to me that the viewer feels as well. :-)

Hugs...
Renee

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

Pelham Quilters Round Robin 2013 - Here is Cheryl's piece

So in June we brought in our completed round robins for the year to guild meeting.  You can see some of the progress on this years top here.  This is the top after I added my round...

I can't seem to find my picture of it with the last round on it, but you will see it in the picture of the quilted piece. This top was worked on by Cheryl, Donna, myself and Doris, in that order, all from the Pelham Quilters.

Since Cheryl has been ill, I decided to take hers home and quilt it for her.  I hope she likes it...

I tried a new quilting design, which I saw at the Kutztown Folk Festival and Quilt Show.  The quilt was amazing and the swirling design was an all over pattern on that piece, but I used in only in the white sections here.

 I also added some red Swarovski hot fix crystals from Cheri's Cyrstals over the points, to bring out more of the red.  Red is Cheryl's favorite color :-).


The rest of the piece is quilted with designs that just seemed to fit...  a meander in the mosaic, since it wouldn't be noticeable anyway: waves in the white points, swirls in the red points, half feathers in the light blue batik and an outline of the flowers in the darker blue outer border.

I used Aurifil 50 wt cotton in white and 2 different blues for the entire quilt.  Besides being practically lint free, it is nice and fine so it gave the quilt the right amount of texture, without trying to steel the show from the quilt itself :-).




All in all, I think it came out pretty good. 

Cheryl is now doing some light sewing, so I left the binding to be done by her. 

Now I hope she likes it :-).

Cheers!