Inquiring minds want to know....

As I am working on my DD's piece I am at the stage where I just want the thread play of the ribbons to be over (actually I only have 2 more to go...woohooo...). So my mind has started to wander on to the next stage.... what decorative accents should I use in the center... applique, thread applique, couching, etc... and what type of quilting will I do. Hmmmm...

My head is overflowing with ideas.... this is for a Miami apartment. Do I add circles to represent beach balls... do I add stars, for the movie stars Raven meets in her job (she's met Sienfield, Vanessa Williams, Bernadette Peters and a few others).... or what. And what about the quilting??? Normally I stay within the boundaries of each section... you know one design per wave. But I am thinking of going free and letting my stitching change as I feel it, vs as the quilt top is constructed. I think I like the freedom of that.... just go wherever it takes me. But even once I get that worked out, I still have to think about thread... variegated, one solid, or many different solids??? I do know that I don't want the quilting to take over the piece, it is bold enough on it's own.

So, I was wondering... do you design your quilting as you design your quilt top? Or do you finish your top and let it speak to you?

If you read this, please post a short comment and share your quilting design practices.

Inquiring minds want to know....

I am still here...

I have been so busy lately, that I haven't had much time to blog. Between, work, the American Leaque Championship and the World Series, baseball and my YANKEES!! have kept me busy. That's right 27 World Series... WooHoo!!!

But I need to focus... After my Celestial Enlightenment piece, my dear daughter has asked for a Thread Play Triptych for her Miami apartment to hang over her 80" sofa. While I had creative block for awhile and then went into a real funk after traveling for almost 3 solid weeks, I finally got going.

Miami is so different than NY where we live or Phili where she went to school and it has definitely influenced her, because she sent me paint colors to match that I would never have expected my brown/blue/black loving daughter to pick.... Mexican Chili, Mint Majestry, Honeydew and Botanical Tint. This is a glimpse of the project as it has progressed...

It took almost a full weekend to create the wavy background. All curves were cut freehand using a rotary cutter. The trick was to keep them all on a 45 degree angle. I then used a zigzag stitch to sew it together. Once the top was complete the fun began.

Here I am transferring the ribbon design from freezer paper to the top using water soluble thread. It was a bit of a job, as the top is quite big for a wall hanging :-).


Here is a shot of the top with most of the paper removed. All except inside the ribbon....

Here I have completed the thread play on the ribbon and am adding the highlight in a darker color thread.
This is where I am as of today. The top is a bit wrinkled... all the stuffing and heaving under the arm of the machine. I still have two different colors to do the highlighting on. Each of the 30 ribbon sections take about 40 minutes of thread play to complete, so it is indeed very time consuming, but I think I am enjoying how it is coming out. Oh, did I say that all of the fabric came from my stash... maybe my love of brights is rubbing off on my daughter :-).


The next stage will be to decide what type of embellishment to do in the center of the piece. Remember the top will be cut into 3 after the quilting is done, so placement is critical. Hmphh???

Yes, I am smiling...

How many times does something that you thought was ruined or a waste of your time turn out to be so much fun? Well, that is how I feel about my 'experiment'. You know the quilt where I didn't measure twice, cut once, so it is wonky, because two sides of a square are longer than the other two :-).

Anyway, I quilted the pink square (the wonky one) tonight and it went pleasantly well. I feel as if I have found my groove on my 830. I know the right speed, I can hear when I am going to fast or too slow, and my foot doesn't get tired. I quess all that playing and practicing has paid off. Here is a close up of the pink round.



Then looking at the black, I sat wondering what to do. The bobbin play going around the 'sphlat' began to look like the spine of a feather, so I decided that I was going to do feathers in the black. Hey, I have been practicing them quite a bit. Well, I must say, I am pretty pleased with the first go round.



I have gone all around the quilt, with one row of feathers. Now, I have to decide, if I continue adding feathers mirroring the first round, do free form feathers in the remaining black area, or if I echo quilt the first row of feathers, or ???? But as usual, I will go to bed and let the quilt talk to me in my sleep.

Good night all!

I knew it would tell me what to do....

Last night I couldn't tell if I had completed my experiment. That is until I tried to go to sleep. But, as soon as I laid my head on my pillow and closed my eyes, I knew exactly what it needed. I knew the top wasn't finished. So today, after entertaining my patient, by playing Dominos for a few hours and prepping Sunday's dinner, I sat down and followed my vision.

Exactly what did I see, when I closed my eyes? Two pink stars floating in a sea of lime green. That's right. I had added lime green stars on the pink background, but there were no pink stars. The first six stars had been made from variegated purple, green and pink thread. Then I added the four green stars, but without the pink it wasn't balanced. As soon as I added the pink stars, it said OK, I am Done! Since I had already picked out my backing fabric the last time I thought the top was finished, it was easy to get it pin basted and ready to be quilted. I decided to pin baste it, instead of my usual spray basting, because I knew it needed the gently easing as I quilted it.Well, here it is with the purple and lime green section quilted.



I am definitely pleased with the way this piece is shaping up. Especially for an experimental piece :-).

Back to my experiement...

Hi... well with the initial learning phase on my 830 behind me, I am back to the piece I was experimenting with as a result of the Super Seminar.... my Libby Lehman thread painting. I am making progress..... I used water soluble thread to transfer the 'splat' from the freezer paper to fabric.

I stabilized the segment first, then outlined it and began filling the segment with little circles.

It is coming along. Tonight I hope to finish the green splats and start on the pink ones. I am using Madeira Rayon's in Hot Pink and Lime Green. I found some Razzle Dazzle in the my draw in just the right colors (purple, pink and green) and I may echo the design using bobbin painting.

I have some purple/silver metallic that I might outline the rectangle with as well... Who knows, it is an idea.... :-)

From Lemons to Lemonade

Sometimes you just don't know where your head is. That is how I felt the Friday night of retreat last month. I had a wonderful time, but it took me hours to get anything done on Friday. Once I got going, I couldn't understand why a piece I was making wouldn't lay flat. It was to be a large square in a square wallhanging. I had the purple center square in the neon green, the green in the hit pink and the hot pink in the black. But it wasn't until I put the black on did I notice it was waving at me. So, I took the black off. Still waving, so I took the pink off. Hmphh, the green and purple were flat, great. So I re-cut the pink, trimmed down the black and on they went. You guessed it, it was waving. So I took it apart again and once done, it looked pretty good. I put it away Friday night, saying a good steam dance in the morning and I could begin dressing up the background. Well I was wrong, squaring the piece up, made me realize the no amount of steam was going to solve whatever ailed this piece. So away it went... I wasn't wasting my weekend driving myself crazy. I put it away and started something else. Well, that was three weeks ago.

Last Thursday before getting ready to hit the road for my daughter's college graduation, I pulled it out. I took the pink and black off again and re-cut them, fresh from the yardage. I figured that the bias's must be way off for it to be waving so much. WRONG.... it still waved!!!! Standing over it, I decided to measure all my sections.... guess what.... the center square wasn't a square... it was a rectangle. Instead of measuring 12" square. It was 12" x 11"... !@!@!@! And NO I hadn't opened the bottle of wine Friday night. How could I have done such a thing? I am a measure twice, cut once type of gal. Well it happened... hence my lemon.... hmphh.... So, I left it on the cutting table and left for the weekend.

Then today while sitting all day in the Jury Panel room, waiting to be called, I sat and read the Libby Lehman book, Thread Play, Mastering Machine Embroidery, I had purchased at the Ricky Tims Super Seminar. And it hit me... I was going to use my lemons to practice my Thread Play. I always pull out some piece of fabric that doesn't thrill me anymore to practice quilting techniques on, so why not use this top that obviously wasn't going to be completed in it's present state. At least not by me.... I don't frog something 4 times!

Well, what do you think....
It is still a little warped, but I am fine with that. The thread square is not centered, but I did that intentionally, since the whole piece is off. I will steam it when I finish with the thread play and then block it after it is quilted. It isn't going to be an heirloom, just a practice piece. I think I will even practice bobbin thread feathers as part of the quilting (aka Ricky Tims).


First, I used a variegated purple, green, and blue Rainbow, Superior thread to create the square. Next since the variegated thread didn't have any pink, I added some pink using a Madeira rayon. Since I wanted the pink to stand out, I took a medium pink and began highlighting the square, then added a second layer of highlights in a lighter pink. Last, I outlined the square in the lightest pink, to give it some definition. I will use Libby's Ribbon technique to decorate the outer black section in pink, green, purple ribbons. I will probably use the Madiera rayon, as I like the sheen it has (plus I have it it two shades of all three colors, so I can get the highlight on the ribbon.) I am thinking of adding some small wonky square embroidery in the purple/pink/green areas.... just not sure yet.

Yep, I think I have the beginning's of a nice cool pitcher of Lemonade. Do you agree??

Practicing my Sphlats!

So how many of you know what a sphlat is??? Well I have the perfect quilt top for a sphlat, so I just had to learn how to make them. Thanks to Libby Lehman for the lesson at the Ricky Tims Seminar :-)

Here's my first attempt at a sphlat! I didn't use a hoop as I don't have one (I will get one for my new Bernina 830 when it comes in... heeheehee ).. so there is a bit of rippling. But that is ok, this was just for fun. I bet if I used some of Ricky's stabilizer, I could have eliminated that. Guess I will have to try that on the next sample.

I also realize that I truly do need to use three different thread colors to show the highlighting. I did the highlighting in inner parts of the curve in a deeper color gold. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but I do need a darker shade to give the effect of bent ribbon. I also studied some of Libby's quilts and sees that she brings the highlighting out a little more, to really show off the effect. Well, at least know I know what I need to do, before I actually add it to a quilt top. When I told my friend Ashley that I knew exactly which top I was going to do the thread play on, the first thing she said was... you are going to practice right :-).... she knows how much I love to just wing it! But no... this is something you practice first, so that is what I will do.

But that is for another night... now it is time to get some sleep.

Night... R....

Ricky Tims Super Seminar: Frederick, Md

Oh what a weekend! Go... Run... full speed ahead to the closest Ricky Tims Super Seminar you can get to. Oh My Gosh.... I never anticipated that I would enjoy myself soooo much! First, we all know that Ricky is a talented quilter and show host... I had heard he was a gifted pianist... but I never knew he had such an entertaining personality and that he was an exquisite story teller (oh yeah, one great soft shoe salesman as well :-)).





I went with my friend and quilting buddy Ashley. Here she is with Alex Anderson and myself...
Both Alex and Libby Lehman (the thread play lady) were quest speakers at the Seminar. What a treat.

The seminar was extremely well organized, each session was 90 minutes, with 45 minute breaks and everything started and stopped on time... to the second. Ricky seems to have a thing about being on time, which for me is just wonderful!

We had sessions on designing quilts (convergence, klaidescope and rhapsody's) from Ricky. Using threads in the bobbin and ribbon painting from Libby, who broke her ankle Friday night :-(. Choosing fabric, hand quilting and choosing quilting motifs from Alex. Ricky also presented on Applique, pipings, bindings and machine quilting... including showing us how he does those phenominal feathers! I thought it would be overwhelming... like brain overload by the end of the 3 days but it wasn't. It was paced just right and Ricky was like a Stand-Up Comedian for quilters. He had us in stitches all weekend long... Whoo Hoo!

Of course, there was a market to buy Ricky's fabric, books and patterns. Both Libby and Alex had their books their as well. There was a Superior Thread supply with the signature threads of all three artists. Nice thing was they included time in breaks and lunch hours for autographs and book signings.

But best of all was to be able to see their quilts up close and personal. Each quilt on display was referred to in the seminar, with reference material in the Seminar handbook that related to a particular quilt. It was great, because during break you could go look at the quilt to get an understanding of the concepts covered in the lectures.

Ok... so here are some of the pictures.... Of course, I don't remember all the names, but you can tell whose they are by the styles :-)....



This piece was a collaboration between Ricky and his father. Can you believe after Ricky's grandmother passed away, both he and his father picked up quilting the same week, without ever discussing the subject with each other?















The Lone Star was done by Ricky's father and Ricky did the broken rhapsody. All the quilting was done by Ricky.

Totally amazing!


Here is another of Ricky's Rhapsody's with some close up shots....


















The detail on this piece is amazing. If you have any of Ricky's Rhapsody books, you will recognize this quilt from one of the covers. He talked about how to achieve accurate machine applique stitching on your sewing machine and his favorite feet to get these results.

If you have ever seen any of Libby Lehman's work, then you will recognize this piece right off. I love the way the thread plays with the light and really keeps your eye moving around the piece. In the closeup, you can see that she uses three different threads in each color way, to give the effect of highlights. I was glad she had samples out on the hands on display table so I could get an up close view of the type of stitching and the amount of each color in proportion. I tried this after I got home. Not bad, but I do need practice.... alot of practice :-) (No this isn't my work... lol)

Lastly, before I call it a night, here is a picture of me with Ricky and Libby. Thanks guys for a wonderful 3 days!!!!!

Next post will have photo's of the concert Ricky performed for us on Friday night.

'Til then... sleep tight :-0