Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Progress

Back in the studio this weekend and got all of the quilting done! Yay!


Have to bury all of those loose ends--a tedious job. But it has to be done.



I finally got to the print stripes. I chose a light rose pink thread for the quilting.




I almost forgot that I needed 2 circles for the end pieces of that cylinder. Here's the "quilt sandwich". No fancy stripes here, just the floral print.




And here they are all quilted. Pretty simple, really.




I decided that the striped piece was just a little blah--it was missing something. The stripes weren't cohesive. So I added some decorative stitching on the boundary of each one of the stripes. A featherstitch in yellow for each one. I like it now!




And then, since I was still going for that homey, cottage look, I decided to wash the two pieces before assembling them. The cotton in the top, batting and backing all shrink up just a little, leaving a puckered, wrinkled effect. Not what I go for in my artquilts but perfect for a pillow cover. So this has been washed.




Maybe you can see the puckers a little better here. 

Next step: assembly!

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

More stripes



I did manage to steal a little bit of time today and managed to get a few more stripes quilted. I'm more than half way done now.


I'm including this close-up shot so that you can see the stitching details. I did use the red thread for the pink stripe to give it a more salmony color feeling overall. I think that worked, don't you? Notice the green thread that I used on the light and dark green stripes? That's the same thread on both. Interesting how the background affects the perception of the color, isn't it?

Well, that's all for today. Hopefully, I'll be done soon and can begin the pillow cover construction, Stay tuned!

Monday, August 02, 2010

A little bit of quilting




Still soooo busy with my day job, but I did get a little bit of quilting done. What's the bottom line here? Always, always always start quilting in the center and work your way outwards. Accordingly, I began in the center of a yellow strip and quilted up and then down to the outside edges. The same for the next yellow stripe. I admit I cheated on the thin green stripe as it was already pretty tacked down. So now I just need an hour or two finish up the job. Soon, I hope!