Hand quilting away...and some quilt show pictures...

Where does the time go?  I've been quilting on "Folk Art Applique"...I can tell I'm getting older...I quilt the black on black parts when the light is good, and the white on brights part the other 99% of the time...LOL!

As this quilt is smallish, I've been taking it with me as I wait while having the car serviced, sitting in meetings, spending time in the car waiting for my daughter.  It is interesting fielding the questions that arise from total strangers.  My favorite, to date, came Monday while waiting in the Subaru dealership during an oil change..."is that crocheting?"  Wow...

I entered two quilts in the AQS - Grand Rapids Quilt Show that will be in August... "All Around the Town" and "Life of Riley" (my version of the Civil War Bride quilt).  This is my first try at entering a juried, big show.  I spent a whole day trying to get good pictures of them for the required entry photo CD.  They recommend taking the pictures outside on a cloudy day for best results.  Are they nuts?  I live in the midwest...the wind is ALWAYS blowing...hence the whole day, waiting for tiny still moments in between the big puffs, to take four pictures.  

I anticipate how hard it is to have quilts accepted, but I'm still glad I went through the motions of applying.  I think it will make me a better quilt archiver for my own benefit, for one thing.  I have not been taking the time to photograph finished quilts as I should be.  As I try and gather pictures of quilts I've made, they are either TERRIBLE, non-existent, on 35mm film negatives, blurry, or the color is not true.  I am really spoiled by the digital world...now I need to learn to do it properly.

I've been working hard on my new original project I've been drafting.  I hope I can share it with you soon.  I can't share it here until I get a copyright for the designs, as I'm hoping to publish it.  As slow as I am getting things done right now, someone else with more free time might take my images and run with them, and that would make me quite sad...sorry to be such a tease about things.

Well, at least the white quilting thread shows up for pictures...I need to spend more time learning how to photograph the black on black quilting.  Maybe I should make my chalk quilting marking thicker...at least THAT would show up!  The diagonal crosshatching and outline quilting will probably show up better when I photograph the finished quilt outside.

Very slowly, I am processing quilt show pictures from Sauder Village.  Going to the show is one of my favorite yearly traditions.  I will share the pictures as I get them cropped and cleaned up.  I will start with the quilts from me and my friends.

I'm not sure I like it when they hang things on point, around corners...I can assure you that this quilt of Cheryl's is perfectly square.   :o)

Sorry some of these tags are fuzzy...there was a crowd around Cheryl's lovely quilt for her granddaughter...I had to be quick snapping pictures!

 

It would have been fun to have finished the hand quilting on "Folk Art Applique" in time to enter it in this show, but I must say I am enjoying taking time to do it without a deadline. My husband is so proud that his boxer shorts have now been seen by hundreds, maybe thousands, more women in the midwest.  "Boxer Rebellion" is back on the wall at his work place now...he insisted on having the ribbon displayed with it for a while.  I would wager that there aren't many men that have gotten second place ribbons on their 5+ year old undies...

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

"Invisible" hand quilting...

I'm quilting along on my "Folk Art Applique" quilt...I didn't get it finished for the 36th annual Sauder Village Quilt Show.  I would of had to have it finished by last Sunday to drive it down in time for show set up.  I realized the Tuesday before that I was ABSOLUTELY INSANE to think I would finish the hand quilting in time.  Maybe, if I had nothing else to do the rest of the week, but I didn't have that luxury.  (The Wonder Woman cape is back in mothballs...)

Wow...NONE of my black quilting thread shows up in the pictures...except where I crossed the vine when outline quilting the grapes.  Those grapes are floating on a skinny piano key quilted background.  I should have quilted this in GREEN...because my  BASTING stitches certainly show up, LOL...

I am outline quilting all the applique in black, then quilting on top of the applique motifs in off white.  I am doing a cross-hatching design behind the applique blocks, then, as mentioned, the "invisible," skinny piano key design on the outer border, behind the grapes.

At least the white thread shows up!  This feels a little like the "Emperor's New Cloths" style of quilting in that I'm telling you the black quilting lines are there, but who knows...maybe they really aren't...

Does anyone out there have suggestions for photographing black quilting thread on black fabric?!?

So now I am ENJOYING the leisurely hand quilting even more...now that there is not a self-inflicted gun held to my head (big grin).

I took the two other quilts I had planned on..."Boxer Rebellion" (otherwise known as my husband's old undies...)...

...and "X Marks the Block," an original, free-pieced, "liberated" quilt that I made for my daughter.  The original plan was to hand quilt this one, but that plan changed last February.

The show runs from Tuesday, May 1 through Sunday, May 6, and I am going tomorrow (Friday).  A little bird emailed me Tuesday morning to tell me that "Boxer Rebellion" won second place in the Small Wall Hanging, Mixed Technique, Hand Quilted category (thanks, Norma!).  Being made from old underwear and stupidly quirky, the best I could have ever hoped for was an "Honorable un-Mention-ables" ribbon...hee-hee-hee.

When I called Steve at work to tell him what I heard, he was happy his underpants were being enjoyed by the judges and so many women from all over the Midwest.  HA!  You just never know...

My daughter is a self-proclaimed nerd...straight A student (in an IB program, no less!), closet novel author (we just printed initial copies of her first book!), a musician, a lover of Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Who, Merlin, and horses.  When I say she loves Harry Potter books, movies and characters, etc., I mean she LOVES them!  Here she is, years ago, posing with her first Harry Potter quilt that I came up with...she has requested another, more dark and mysterious one...not "cute" like this one.

(She had just lost her two front teeth...)

Anyway, my friend Bonnie (no blog) turned me onto the coolest site for "nerd quilting"...it's called Fandom In Stitches.  This site has all kinds of great, FREE, paper-pieced blocks by and for fans of Harry Potter, "Dr. Who," "The Muppets," The Lord of the Rings, "Merlin," Sherlock Holmes, etc.  This site even has some favorite Disney, comics, games, sports, and other patterns.  You'll enjoy browsing here!

Tomorrow I am off with friends to the 36th Annual Sauder Village Quilt Show in Archbold, Ohio...I can't wait!  I'm kind of bummed that I didn't finish my "Folk Art Applique" quilt in time...next year!

I will take lots of pictures to share with you!

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

The REST of the grapes...and the finished top!

It looks like I changed my mind about my original grapevine appliqued outer borders for Folk Art Applique and made a summer squash border instead, doesn't it?!?  I didn't lose my mind...I made these squash-shaped patterns to help me place the grape clusters.  Since I am laying them out right on the border strips with no real detailed plan, by using these paper clusters, I save moving the individual grapes too much as I plan the layout.

First, I glue baste the vines on using the "dot-dot-not-a lot" technique.  I had some pattern weights, so I used them to hold glued elements until I was sure everything would dry nicely in place.

I just arrange grapes under the paper patterns, peeling up one side at a time to place each individual circle, using my tweezers to hold the circles instead of my clumsy fingers.

I used a little more glue on the grapes than I usually do...I caught Weasley picking at them on the first border I prepped...BAD kitty.  I will soak the borders to remove the glue, so I am not too freaked out about glue amount.

Little embroidered tendrils were added after all the grapes were stitched down.

 Here's the finished left border,

 And the rest...

And...drum roll, please...here is the finished top!

I guess I could have avoided the grapes altogether and just finished it with the blue scalloped inner border, but I like the look of the grapevines.  Since I am hand quilting this, I will quilt something nice in the four plain corners.

Off to baste all the layers together so I can start the hand quilting...I'm going to use a Hobbs Heirloom Wool batt.

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)