Quilting

Where does the time go?! To say it's been busy around here is an understatement, but it's mostly good stuff, so no complaints. 

Last Wednesday was the first class of Beyond First Time Quiltmaking. It went pretty well, though I'm getting some feedback that this quilt design is too much for eight class hours. However, several of the quilters have said they're enjoying it. So, I'm thinking that for next fall's class, I'll design a modified version of this one so students have two options. Each quilter likes to work at her own pace, so having two designs will hopefully fulfill that need. 

54" X 60" (not yet bound)

Over the weekend, I was able to finish quilting it with a combination of easy designs - channel lines, stippling and circles... 

 - and more challenging designs like feathers, 

and snail trails.

My intent was to show a variety of quilting designs to inspire students to quilt their own, at their own skill level.

I will also teach them my favorite binding method by demonstrating it, and providing a hand-out. I hope students feel like they've gotten their money's worth for the class, and not that I've loaded them with too much information. 

Over the weekend I pin-based a big, 78" square quilt top. For the first time, I layered two batts: on top of the backing fabric is Quilter's Dream polyester, and on top of the poly is Quilter's Dream wool. When interviewing winning quilters in Paducah, I learned that a number of them were double batting their quilts because quilt folds didn't show after being shipped and hung, and the extra dimension shows off the quilting. A few quilters said they used Hobbs 80/20 in place of the poly layer.

 In any case, I'm giving this a go. This is my test piece, a mini version of the big quilt.

It looks poofy, doesn't it?

I want to put some special quilting into this quilt, so I took a photo of it, used iPhoto to change the color photo into black and white, and printed out several copies. I'm using the pages to try out quilting designs. I haven't settled on anything yet, but it's going to be my road map for getting started.

I've resurrected a UFO. Well, truth be told, it isn't even my UFO! Back in 2011, Julia, who lives in Australia, offered a blog giveaway of these four 15" X 15" Kaffe Fasset fabric blocks made from the Piece 'O Cake book "Aunt Millie's Garden." Julia exquisitely hand-appliquéd the blocks herself, and I won them! After some Kaffe fabric shopping in Paducah, and a generous scrap donation sent from Elizabeth (she made the Lollypop Trees quilt seen here), I've got what I need to make a top. Julia didn't have any of the background fabric, nor even knew what it is (a teeny, aqua-colored microdot), so "lake" Architextures crosshatch fabric is what I'm going with. Of course, I wouldn't have enough of it in my stash, so now this project is stalled until a Hawthorne Threads fabric order arrives. 

In the meantime, I'm enjoying real flowers just outside my sewing room. Lovely yellow hibiscus, 

pretty yellow allamandas, 

and the next door neighbor's gorgeous crape myrtle. We couldn't grow any of these flowers in Iowa.

The rest of this week is be pretty laid-back, as Wednesday finds me having yet another catheterization procedure (my fourth visit to that lab since last December), to clean out plaque within the stent that's in my left femoral artery. After I thought I'd put all that annoying peripheral artery disease (PAD) behind me, I learned last week that the intense left leg ache I've been experiencing when line dancing or walking at a steady pace, is being caused by poor blood flow because plaque is pushing through the stent the doc inserted last December 13. Hopefully, after tomorrow's "roto-rooter" job, I'll be line dancing again without discomfort. Linda